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Interactive Quiz for Modern-1e, Chapter 4
Chapter 4 –Torts and Cyber Torts
1. The basic purpose of tort law is to:
a. provide remedies for the invasion of protected interests.
b. punish criminal wrongdoers.
c. ensure that Congress does not overstep its legal authority.
d. make sure that citizens follow appropriate immigration regulations.
Answers:
a. Correct. The basic purpose of tort law is to provide remedies when legally protected interests have been invaded.
b. Incorrect. This is not the basic purpose of tort law.
c. Incorrect. Tort law is not primarily concerned with the scope of Congress’s legal authority.
d. Incorrect. The basic purpose of tort law is not to make sure that citizens follow appropriate immigration regulations.
2. If Sam threatens Jill with a knife but doesn’t, in fact, touch her, Jill may sue for ________________ if she honestly believed that Sam could hurt her.
a. battery
b. felony
c. assault
d. misdemeanor
Answers:
a. Incorrect. A battery requires an unwelcome touching.
b. Incorrect. Private parties do not sue others for felonies. Felonies are crimes, and the government charges people with felonies under the criminal law.
c. Correct. An assault requires that the victim be reasonably apprehensive about, or fearful of, an offensive or harmful contact.
d. Incorrect. Governments, not private parties, charge people with crimes categorized as misdemeanors.
3. If you defame someone, you injure:
a. yourself.
b. that person’s good reputation.
c. the administrative branch.
d. the judiciary.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. You injure yourself only in so far as you subject yourself to a lawsuit.
b. Correct. Defamation involves a harm to someone’s good reputation.
c. Incorrect. The administrative branch of government as an entity is not harmed by false statements about its reputation.
d. Incorrect. The judicial branch of government as an entity is not harmed by false statements about its reputation.
4. A legitimate defense to wrongful interference is:
a. malicious intent.
b. bona fide competition.
c. predatory behavior.
d. unjustified interference.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. Malicious intent is not a defense to interference; it would tend to prove that the interference was wrongful.
b. Correct. Bona fide competition is a legitimate defense to wrongful interference.
c. Incorrect. Predatory behavior is not a defense to wrongful interference.
d. Incorrect. Unjustified interference would not be a defense to wrongful interference.
5. Torts committed against property include:
a. defamation.
b. appropriation.
c. conversion.
d. libel.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. Defamation is a tort committed against a person.
b. Incorrect. Appropriation is also a tort committed against a person.
c. Correct. Conversion is the wrongful taking, using, or retaining possession of personal property that belongs to another.
d. Incorrect. Libel is a tort committed against a person.
6. One of the legal difficulties posed by defamatory remarks made online is that:
a. it makes it difficult for Internet service providers (ISPs) to stay in business, because they are held liable for the defamatory remarks made by those using their services.
b. the Internet makes it so easy to locate those who make the defamatory statements that the courts are overburdened with tort lawsuits.
c. defendants in online defamation suits retaliate by spamming the plaintiffs, thus overloading the plaintiffs’ Web sites and causing them to suffer further harm.
d. it is difficult to learn the identity of the person who made the defamatory remarks.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. ISPs were exempted from such liability by the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
b. Incorrect. In the online environment, it is, in fact, very difficult to locate those who commit defamation via the Internet.
c. Incorrect. Spamming plaintiffs in defamation lawsuits has yet to become a problem.
d. Correct. Because of this, those who are the targets of defamatory comments in the online world find it difficult to obtain a remedy for the harms suffered.
7. Luisa, in a hurry to get to her business law class on time, backs out of her driveway without taking the usual care and accidentally runs into Tony’s 2005 Toyota Camry, causing $2,500 worth of damage to Tony’s car. Luisa has committed which tort?
a. Invasion of privacy.
b. Negligence.
c. Conversion.
d. Slander.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. Luisa may have violated Tony’s space, but she hasn’t committed an invasion of privacy.
b. Correct. By damaging Tony’s personal property through her careless action, Luisa has committed the tort of negligence.
c. Incorrect. Luisa hasn’t taken or wrongfully retained possession of the Camry, so she hasn’t committed the tort of conversion.
d. Incorrect. Luisa hasn’t said something to harm Tony’s reputation, so she hasn’t committed slander.
8. The duty of care requires you to:
a. help all strangers you run across.
b. help only those strangers who are suffering from some injury.
c. help only those strangers who are experiencing an emergency.
d. act as a reasonable person would act in the same circumstances.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. Such a standard would impose a tremendous burden on people.
b. Incorrect. There is no legal duty (in the vast majority of states) to be a “good Samaritan.”
c. Incorrect. You have no legal duty to help people in emergencies, though you may have a moral duty to do so.
d. Correct. As a member of civil society, this level of care is legally required of you.
9. The landmark case that established the “foreseeability” test for proximate cause was:
a. Wickard v. Filburn.
b. Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.
c. Mathis v. Liu.
d. Martin v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. This case involved the commerce clause.
b. Correct. This famous decision established that legal rule that a harm must be foreseeable in order for it be considered the proximate cause of an injury.
c. Incorrect. This case involved a wrongful interference with a contractual relationship.
d. Incorrect. This case involved a store’s liability to a customer.
10. Res ipsa loquitur means:
a. you’re on your own.
b. buyer beware.
c. ignorance is no excuse.
d. the facts speak for themselves.
Answers:
a. Incorrect. The phrase does not mean “you’re on your own.”
b. Incorrect. Caveat emptor is Latin for “buyer beware.”
c. Incorrect. The phrase does not mean “ignorance is no excuse.”
d. Correct. Res ipsa loquitur means “the facts speak for themselves.”