On-Line Test Bank for Miller & Jentz s1

Interactive Quiz for ALT-12e, Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Intentional Torts and Privacy

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 are a victim of false imprisonment, you are:

a. made fearful of an unwanted contact with another person. b. touched by another person in an unwanted or offensive way. c. confined or restrained by another person intentionally and without justification. d. intentionally bad-mouthed by another person. 2

Answers:

a. Incorrect. This describes an assault, not false imprisonment. b. Incorrect. This describes a battery, not false imprisonment. c. Correct. False imprisonment does not mean that you have to be in prison, only that you be confined or restrained by someone intentionally and without justification. d. Incorrect. Such an action may constitute slander, but not false imprisonment.

4. 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.

5. In order for a statement to be made with actual malice, it must be: a. unintended. b. humility. c. made with knowledge of its absolute truth. d. made with knowledge of its falsity or with a reckless disregard of the truth.

Answers:

a. Incorrect. In order for a statement to be made with actual malice, the speaker must intend to make the statement. b. Incorrect. It is not necessary to show humility on the speaker’s part to prove actual malice. c. Incorrect. A statement made with actual malice must either be false or made with a reckless disregard of the truth. If one knows something is true, one does not show a reckless disregard of the truth. d. Correct. A statement made with actual malice is a statement made with knowledge of its falsity or with a reckless disregard of the truth. 3

6. If someone uses a great picture of you to sell peanut butter and fails to get your consent to do this, you may be able to sue for: a. libel. b. fraudulent misrepresentation. c. defamation. d. appropriation.

Answers:

a. Incorrect. This tort involves making a false statement in print or in another permanent medium that is harmful to another person’s good reputation. b. Incorrect. This tort involves engaging in intentional deceit for personal gain. c. Incorrect. Defamation involves making a false statement that is harmful to another’s good reputation. d. Correct. If you appropriate someone’s likeness without that person’s consent, you have committed the tort of appropriation, a form of invasion of privacy.

7. 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.

8. 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. 4

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.

9. 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.

10. Which of the following DOES NOT constitute trespass to land? a. Without permission, you tunnel under your neighbor’s land. b. With permission, you walk across your neighbor’s land. c. Without permission you shoot an arrow across your neighbor’s land. d. Without permission, your neighbor sets up a vegetable stand on your land.

Answers:

a. Incorrect. This tunneling would constitute trespass to land. b. Correct. By giving you permission to walk on his or her land, your neighbor eliminates the possibility that you have committed trespass. c. Incorrect. Causing something to cross your neighbor’s land, without his or her permission, is trespass to land. d. Incorrect. Your neighbor commits a trespass to land by staying on your land without your permission.