UT Bar Torts and Negligence 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A prankster shoves a chair out from under a coworker as she sits down, intending only a joke, but she fractures her tailbone. Which intentional tort has the prankster committed?
- Battery (Correct answer)
- Negligence only
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress
- Conversion
Correct answer: Battery
Battery requires intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact, and intent to joke does not negate intent to cause the contact that resulted.
Question 2: A defendant swings a bat at the plaintiff's head but misses entirely; the plaintiff saw the swing coming. Which tort claim is strongest?
- Assault (Correct answer)
- Battery
- False imprisonment
- Trespass to chattels
Correct answer: Assault
Assault protects against reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact, and no actual contact is required.
Question 3: A store detective locks a suspected shoplifter in a windowless office for six hours without evidence or calling police. The best claim against the store is what?
- False imprisonment (Correct answer)
- Malicious prosecution
- Abuse of process
- Defamation
Correct answer: False imprisonment
False imprisonment is intentional confinement within fixed boundaries without lawful privilege, and a six-hour detention exceeds any reasonable shopkeeper's privilege.
Question 4: A homeowner sets a spring gun to protect an unoccupied vacation cabin, and it seriously wounds a burglar. Why is the homeowner liable?
- Deadly force cannot be used solely to protect property (Correct answer)
- Burglars are licensees
- Spring guns violate federal firearms law
- The cabin was insured
Correct answer: Deadly force cannot be used solely to protect property
Deadly mechanical devices may not be used to defend property alone because deadly force is permitted only to protect human life.
Question 5: A blaster uses dynamite with all possible care, yet debris damages a neighbor's roof. The neighbor's best theory of recovery is what?
- Strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities (Correct answer)
- Negligence per se
- Private necessity
- Trespass to chattels
Correct answer: Strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities
Blasting is a classic abnormally dangerous activity, so liability attaches regardless of the care exercised.
Question 6: A neighbor's pet wolf, which had never shown aggression, bites a visitor. The owner's liability is best described how?
- Strict liability, because a wolf is a wild animal (Correct answer)
- No liability, because the wolf had no vicious history
- Liability only if a leash law was violated
- Liability only for trespassers
Correct answer: Strict liability, because a wolf is a wild animal
Owners of wild animals are strictly liable for injuries caused by the animal's dangerous propensities regardless of the animal's individual history.
Question 7: During a sudden storm, a boat owner ties his vessel to a stranger's dock to save it, and the boat damages the dock. What must the boat owner do?
- Pay for the dock damage despite the privilege of private necessity (Correct answer)
- Nothing, because necessity is a complete defense
- Pay punitive damages for trespass
- Surrender the boat to the dock owner
Correct answer: Pay for the dock damage despite the privilege of private necessity
Private necessity privileges the entry but the entrant remains liable for actual damage caused to the property.
UT Bar Torts and Negligence 3
A prankster shoves a chair out from under a coworker as she sits down, intending only a joke, but she fractures her tailbone.
Which intentional tort has the prankster committed?