Intentional Interference With Persons

Torts in this category include, for example: assault, battery, false arrest, and false imprisonment. Assault is threatening violence, and battery is actual physical violence. If a person tries to hit another person, it is an assault whether or not he hits the other person. If he hits the other person, it is battery. Assault alone may be enough to give rise to a cause of action.

False arrest and false imprisonment are essentially the same. Both involve an unlawful detention of the plaintiff which the defendant knows, or should know, is unlawful.

Misuse Of Legal Procedure

A person who, without probable cause, spitefully institutes criminal or civil proceedings against another may be liable in an action for malicious prosecution. A similar action is abuse of process, in which the defendant has a warrant, summons, or subpoena issued for an improper purpose. Also, a person who frivolously or habitually starts legal proceedings may be sanctioned by the court, or in the case of an habitual or vexatious litigation may be prohibited from starting new cases. Other sanctions include fines and payment of the other person's attorney fees.

Defamation

Defamation is a false or derogatory statement about another. It may be libel (which is written) or slander (which is spoken). The injury in libel or slander is an injury to reputation, including: character, morals, ability, business practices, or financial status. Common, malicious gossip may be sufficiently defamatory to justify liability for slander or libel.

Invasion Of Privacy

The law recognizes some intrusions upon privacy as so outrageous that they warrant liability in a tort action. Examples include serious invasions of a person's solitude, publishing her name, picture, or private information about her, or using her personality for commercial purposes.

Intentional Interference With Property

The most common tort of this type is trespass. Usually, trespass is thought of as an intrusion on real property (land or buildings), but it can also involve personal property. For example, tampering with another's car is a species of trespass. Another example is conversion. In conversion, a person assumes control of property belonging to another for his own use or benefit, such as pawning someone else's watch.

Nuisance

Broadly speaking, a nuisance is a condition which interferes with the use or enjoyment of land by another. There are two types: public nuisance and private nuisance. Typical examples of public nuisances are the maintenance of a brothel, or the operation of gambling den or crack house. Private nuisances usually deal with some type of pollution, or the maintenance of some type of offensive or dangerous condition. In recent years, statutes involving health, safety, and environmental protection have preempted certain common law tort actions.

Economic Torts

Interference with a contract by a person who is not a party to the contract may give rise to tort liability. Such interference might include inducing someone to repudiate her contract with another, or interfering with performance of the agreement. A similar type of lawsuit involves improper interference with prospective business relations where there is no actual contract. These lawsuits are usually based on some form of unfair competition.

Strict Liability

In a few cases, a person may be held liable for loss or injury even though he did not act intentionally, recklessly, or even negligently. These cases are generally limited to those in which the injury is caused by some especially dangerous substance or agency under the defendant's control. The substance or agency can be impounded water, explosives, poison, or radioactive substances, etc. In addition, strict liability is applied in products liability cases where plaintiff's injury is the alleged result of a defect in a product. Some examples of situations which may give rise to strict liability are: a food or beverage which makes the user violently ill, a home permanent which causes the user's hair to fall out, an underarm deodorant which causes an acute allergic reaction, and the failure of a car's improperly designed steering system which causes a wreck.

The success of an action based on strict liability for product design and use depends on the evaluation of many factors, including, for example: whether the product was defective in manufacture or construction, was defective in design or formulation, was defective due to inadequate warning or instruction, or was defective because it did not conform to a representation made by the manufacturer.

This positions are interesting to compare with Ukrainian reality, and a lot of points can be useful for us too.

1) Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Damages

2) Hieros Gamos’s general torts page: http://www.hg.org/torts.html

3) Міжнародне приватне право. навч. посіб. / За ред. С. Г. Кузьменка. – К.: Центр учбової літератури, 2010. – 316 с. ISBN 978-611-01-0089-2

4) The Law And You, A Handbook of General and Everyday Law Affecting Ohio Citizens. Prepared for the Ohio State Bar Association by the Ohio State Bar Foundation. - 13th Edition – 2006.

5) Tort and Accident Law Fanger & Associates LLC, An Ohio Law Firm http://www.fangerlaw.com/tort-and-accident-law.php