Intentional conduct of a public official in abuse of her power, or knowingly beyond the scope of her jurisdiction, causing damage to the plaintiff.

Mitigation of loss

Steps that a plaintiff might reasonably be expected to take to minimize the damage or loss caused by the tortfeasor.

Necessity

A defence alleging that the tortfeasor's conduct should be excused on the grounds that he acted in an emergency and the benefit gained by his wrongful act outweighed the harm suffered by the plaintiff.

Negligence

A tort based on careless conduct or conduct that creates a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm.

Nervous shock

Psychiatric damage giving rise to physical consequences or a recognized psychiatric illness caused by a sudden and unexpected traumatic event.

No-fault compensation

Compensation based on the condition or need of an incapacitated person rather than on the proof that the loss was caused by the wrongdoing or tort of another person.

Nonfeasance

The failure to confer a benefit or an advantage on another person.

Novus actus interveniens

;A Latin term for an intervening unforeseeable event that occurs after the defendant's negligent act and operates to precipitate or worsen the plaintiff's loss. The defendant is not liable for the loss precipitated or aggravated by such an event.

Nuisance (private)

Conduct that interferes unreasonably with the use, enjoyment, and comfort of land.

Nuisance (public)

Conduct that unreasonably interferes with the exercise of public rights or endangers the lives, property, or comfort of the public.

Occupier

A person with actual control of premises or land.

Occupiers' liability

A common law or statutory tort controlling the liability of occupiers of land or premises for harm caused to their visitors.

Passing-off

A misrepresentation that goods or services sold by one person are those of another or that they have a quality associated with those of the other person.

Personal injury

The

term is used in tort law to include traumatic injury, illness, and nervous shock.

Pleadings

The

process of a formal exchange of written documentation between the litigants defining the contested issues of fact, and, to a lesser extent, law, giving rise to the dispute between the parties.

Policy

A term that refers to the judicial analysis of the social costs and benefits of a legal principle or a judicial decision.

Possession of chattels

Physical control of a chattel.

Possession of land

Actual occupation of land coupled with the intention to control entry.

Prescription

The

doctrine of land law under which persons secure an interest in land by acts of user or the lapse of time.

Recklessness

Conduct that exposes others to a very high risk of injury.

Remoteness of damage

A rule that determines if the damage suffered by the plaintiff is sufficiently proximate to the tortfeasor's conduct to justify the imposition of liability.

Res ipsa loquitur

;A Latin phrase meaning that the "facts speak for themselves." A kind of circumstantial evidence of negligence arising from the occurrence of an accident of unknown cause that does not normally happen without the negligence of a person.

Restitutio in integrum

;A Latin phrase meaning the restoration of an injured person to the position she was in before the tortfeasor's conduct.

Rylands v. Fletcher (the rule in)

A tort of strict liability for damage caused by the escape of something likely to do mischief from a non- natural (dangerous) use of land.

Scienter action

The

Latin word for knowledge. A common law action imposing strict liability for damage caused by animals that the owner knows to be dangerous.

Several concurrent tortfeasors

Two

or more tortfeasors whose independent tortious acts are causes-in-fact of indivisible damage.

Several liability

Where two or more tortfeasors independently cause the same harm to the plaintiff and each is individually liable for the plaintiff's loss.

Slander

An oral defamatory communication.

Strict liability

Tort liability based solely on the causation of damage rather than proof of the defendant's intent or negligence.

Thin-skull rule

The

principle that requires a tortfeasor to take his victim as he finds him and to compensate him to the full extent of his injuries even though they may be more serious than expected because of the plaintiff's pre-existing conditions, predispositions, and vulnerabilities.

Tort

A civil wrong remedied primarily by an award of damages.

Tortfeasor

A person who has committed a tort.

Trespass

A term deriving from the ancient writ of trespass that provided a civil remedy for direct damage to person and property.

Trespass ab initio

;A principle that deems a person who enters land as of right to be a trespasser from the moment of entry if she abuses or exceeds her licence while on the property.

Trespass to chattels

The

direct and intentional interference with a chattel in the possession of another.

Trespass to land

A direct and intentional intrusion on land in the possession of another.

Trespass by relation

A principle that deems a person with a right to the immediate possession of land to have been in possession of the land from the time the right arose once he has regained possession of it.

Trespasser

A person who enters land without permission of the possessor or remains on land after the permission of the possessor is revoked.

Vicarious liability

The

liability of one person for the torts of another because of the nature of the legal relationship between them, for example, employer and employee.

Volenti non fit injuria

;A Latin phrase meaning that "no injury can be done to a willing person." A defence based on the plaintiff's consent to injury without legal recourse against the person who caused it.

Volition

The capacity consciously to control and direct bodily movement.

Warranty

A strict contractual promise; a guarantee.