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PAPER-III
TORTS AND CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW
Syllabus
UNIT-1 EVOLUTION OF LAW OF TORTS:
1.1 Its development by courts in England 1.2 Forms of Action 1.3 Emergence of specific
remedies from case to case 1.4 Reception of Law of Torts in India 1.5 Principles of Equity,
Justice and good conscience 1.6 Uncodified character - advantages and disadvantages
UNIT-2 DEFINITION, NATURE, SCOPE AND OBJECTS:
2.1 A Wrongful act violation of a duty (in rem) imposed by law, duty which is owed to
people generally, Legal damage - damnum sine injuria and injuria sine damnum. 2.2 Tort
distinguished from, Crime, Breach of Contract etc. 2.3 The concept of unliquidated damages
2.4 Changing scope of Law of Torts: Expanding character of duties owed to people generally
due to complexities of modern society -scientific and technological progress,
industrialization, urbanization, specialization, occupational hazards. 2.5 Objects-Prescribing
standards of human conduct, redressal of wrongs by payment of compensation prohibiting.
unlawful conduct by injunctions.
UNIT -3 PRINCIPLES OF LIABILITY IN TORTS:
3.1 Fault 3.1.1 Wrongful intent 3.1.2 Negligence 3.2 Liability without fault
3.3 Violation of Ethical codes 3.4 Statutory Liability 3.4.1 Fatal Accidents Act 3.4.2 Railway
Act 3.4.3 Workmen's compensation Act 3.4.4 Motor Vehicles Act 3.4.5 Carrier Act 3.4.6
Insurance Laws 3.5 Place of motive in Torts
UNIT -4 JUSTIFICATION IN TORT
4.1 Volenti Non Fit Injuria - What is free consent? Informed consent mere and knowledge
and knowledge coupled with assumption of risk 4.2 Necessity, Private and public 4.3
Plaintiff's default 4.4 Act of God and
Inevitable Accident 4.5 Private defence 4.6. Statutory authorisation 4.7
Judicial and Quasi-judicial Acts 4.8 Parental and quasi parental authority
UNIT -5 EXTINGUISHMENT OF LIABILITY IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS
5.1 Death, Actio personalis moritur cum persona. Exceptions, Law Reform (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act. 1934. 5.2 Waiver and acquiescence 5.3 Release 5.4 Accord and satisfaction
5.5 Limitation
UNIT -6 STANDING
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6.1 Who may sue in torts 6.1.1 Aggrieved individuals 6.1.2 Class Action, 01 R8 6.1.3 Social
Action Groups 6.1.4 Statutes granting standing to certain persons groups 6.2 Who may not be
sued 6.2.2 Lunatics 6.2.3 Infants.
UNIT -7 DOCTRINE OF SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY AND ITS RELEVENCE IN INDIA
7.1 Liability of State-Sovereign and non-sovereign functions, Crown Proceedings Act of
U.K., Federal Tort Claims Act of U.S.A. Constitution of India, Arts 294 and 300 7.2 Act of
State.
UNIT -8 VICARIOUS LIABILITY
8.1 Basis, Scope and justification 8.1.1 Express authorization 8.1.2 Ratification 8.1.3
Abetment 8.2 Special Relationship 8.2.1 Master and servant - arising out of and in the course
of employment who is master? - Control test who is servant? Borrowed servant Independent
contractor.
8.2.2 Corporation and Principal Officer
UNIT -9 TORTS AGINST PERSONS AND PERSONAL RELATIONS
9.1 Assault, Battery, Mayhem 9.2 False Imprisonment 9.3 Defamation Libel, slander
including law relating to privileges 9.4 Marital Relations, domestic Relations, parental
Relations Master and Servant relations. 9.5 Malicious prosecution 9.6 Shortened Expectation
of life 9.7 Nervous Shock
9.8 Defences
UNIT-10 WRONG AFFECTING PROPERTY
10.1 Trespass to land, Trespass ab initio, Dispossession 10.2 Movable Property-Trespass to
goods Detinue, conversion 10.3 Torts against Business interest- Injurious falsehood,
misstatements, passing off 10.4 Defences.
UNIT -11 NEGLIGENCE
11.1 Basic concepts 11.1.1 Theories of Negligence 11.1.2 Standards of care, Duty to take
care, carelessness inadvertence 11.1.3 Doctrine of contributive negligence 11.1.4 Res Ispa
Loquitor and its importance in contemporary 11.2 Professional liability due to Negligence
with special reference to consumer Protection Law
UNIT-12 ABSOLUTE/STRICT LIABILITY
12.1 The Rule in Ryland vs. Fletcher. Principle for application of these rules. 12.1.1 Storing
of dangerous things 12.1.2 Escape of dangerous thingsapplication of principles in concrete
cases of damage arising out of industrial activity. (The Bhopal Disaster - Oleum Gas Escape,
Machua Dam Burst, M.C. Mehta Case, Nuclear Installations and their hazards) 12.2
Defences 12.3 Liability under Motor Vehicle Act, Railway Act etc.,
UNIT-13 NUISANCE
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13.1 Definition, Essentials, Types 13.2 Acts which constitute nuisance obstructions of
highways, pollution of air, water, noise, interference with light and air.
UNIT-14 LEGAL REMEDIES
14.1 Legal Remedies 14.1.1 Award of damages-simple, special, punitive 14.1.2 remoteness
of Damages - foreseability and directness tests 14.1.3 Injunction 14.1.4 Specific Restitution
of Property 14.2 Extra-Legal Remedies-self help, Re-entry in land, Re-capture of goods,
distress damage peasant abatement to nuisance.
UNIT-15 JUDICIAL PROCESS IN TORT
15.1 Dilatoriness 15.2 Complicated rules of procedures and evidence 15.3 Experts trial
process, Reports of Testing labs 15.4 Court fees, Problems of access.
UNIT-16 TORT AND CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW
16.1 Duty to take care and liability for negligence: Manufacturers and traders and providers
of services such as lawyers, doctors and other professional 16.2 Caveat emptor and caveat
venditor 16.3 Deceit and false advertisement 16.4 Liability for hazardous and inherently
dangerous industrial activity 16.5 Product liability-EEC directives 16.6 Right to common
property resources-right to pass and repass on pathways.
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Unit 1
26-02-2021
Torts is derived from Latin word Tortum and tors is a French word. English meaning of tort
is ‘wrong’.
Writ
An order of a king can be called as writ in England. In India only supreme court and
high court can pass a writ.
01-03-2021
Note:
• Civil wrongs with unfixed damages come under law of torts.
• Doctor patient relation come under law of torts.
Definitions of ‘tort’.
Salmond
Tort is a civil wrong for which the remedy is a common law action for unliquidated damages,
and which is not exclusively the breach of a contract or the breach of trust or other merely
equitable obligation.
Winfield
Tortious liability arises from the breach of a duty primarily fixed by law. Such duty is
towards persons generally. Its breach is redressal by an action for unliquidated damages.
Innes
Tort is an unauthorised prejudicial interference of some person by act or omission with a
right in rem of another person.
Ringwood
Tort is a civil injury the remedy for which is an action for damages justifiable in virtue of the
common law jurisdiction of the court for violation of a right in rem enjoyed by some private
party the general law of the land.
Indermaur
Tort is some wrongful act consisting in the withholding or violating some legal right giving
rise to an action for damages.
Frazur
Tort is an infringement of general right or right in rem that is a right available against at
world at large.
Clerk and Lindsell
Tort is a wrong independent of contract for which appropriate remedy is a common law
action.
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Bige law
Tort is a breach of duty established by municipal law for which a suit for damages can be
maintained.
Halsbury laws of England
Tort is a term which is used to describe a wrong or a breach of duty committed by a person
which is legally wrongful as regards some other person.
General defences
04-03-2021
1. Infancy
2. Insanity
3. In toxification
a. Voluntary
b. Involuntary
4. Accident
5. Consent
08-03-2021
6. Plaintiff wrong doer
7. Necessity
Note: mistake of fact is excusable in civil law but not excusable in tort law
23-04-2021 Online class 1
Trespass to property
Entering a land without prior permission
By Remaining in the land without permission
Essential elements of trespass
1. Entry is essential for trespass
What will lead to trespass?
1. By driving a nail into a person’s wall
2. By placing anything against the wall of other persons
3. Above and over above his land
4. By planting trees in the land of other persons
5. Shooting birds over the land of another person
Categories of trespass
1. Actionable
2. Actionable perse
Action for trespass
1. Trespass of immovable property
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2. Land must be in Possession of the one who is going to complain
3. There need not be any actual damage, mere trespass to land is itself sufficient
4. Forcefully defend his possession against the trespasser
5. Forcefully eject him using reasonable force
6. Plaintiff may apply injunction for expected or continued trespass
7. Mean profits
Note: Action cannot be taken for trespass if the trespass is happened from 12 years, according
to section 27 of law of limitation act.
Defences available to trespassers
1. Prescription
2. Leave and license (section 52 of Indian Easement Act, 1882)
3. Act of necessity
4. Self defence
5. Re-entry
6. Retaking of goods or cattle
7. Possession of land by trespasser - Successful occupation of the land by the trespasser
(specific relief act).
8. Abetting nuisance
9. Special property
10. Without possession of the land by real owner, injunction cannot be granted
11. Possession protected by 9 points of law
Prescription
After successful occupation of land by trespasser for 20 years, the right of trespasser is
recognised by law.
Leavened license
License with a right
Authority of law
Act of necessity
Example: Floods, fire accidents
Re entry
By removing all the hurdles caused by the trespasser the owner can re-enter in his land
Note: 6 carpenter case
24-04-2021 Online class day2
Strict liability
Exceptions
1. Whenever a person uses his own land for natural purposes
2. Things not essentially dangerous
3. Volenti non fit injuria
4. Act of strangers
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5. Act of god
6. Statutory authority
7. Conditional authority
8. Default of plaintiff
9. Absolute liability
10. Scienter rule
04-05-2021
Trespass to Goods
Trespass
It is nothing but unlawful interference with the possession of goods. It is not confined
with actual possession only, it also applicable to constructive possession (Goods may be
actually possessed by owner will amount to actual possession but at the same time very same
goods possessed by his servants then it can be called as constructive possession of its master).
Possession of goods in a warehouse or in a ship and the person has been title of that particular
goods by using it he can get actual possession.
Secondly the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant interfered his possession.
Number of forms in which a person can commit civil wrong of trespass to goods:
1. Scratching the panel of coach
2. Removing the tyre form a car
3. Injuring or destroying goods
4. In case of animals beating or killing or infecting them with disease or chasing cattle
will amount to trespass to goods.
Conversion
Conversion is wrongful appropriation of goods of another. Conversion which consists
in the defendants wrongfully converting to his own use and depriving the plaintiff permanently
or for a indefinite time of goods to the use and possession of which the plaintiff is entitled as
by taking them away, detaining them, destroying them, delivering them to a third person or
otherwise dealing with them in a manner adverse to the plaintiff and inconsistent with his right
to use and possess them.
Detinue
It is the name of the common law action for conversion by detention. The wrong of
detention is committed when the defendant takes away thing legally but afterwards his
possession becomes illegal.
Example: A takes a taxi from B on hire, but afterwards he refuses to give back the taxi and
alleges that the taxi belongs to him. Here A is guilty of detention, it goes without saying that a
detention amounts to conversion only if it is adverse to the right of the true owner.
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Deceit
Definition
It is a false statement of fact made by ‘A’ knowingly or recklessly (not caring whether it be
true or false) with intent that it should be acted upon by B who does act upon it and thereby
suffers damage.
Elements of deceit
1. False statement (misrepresentation of facts)
2. Absence of belief in its truth
3. The intention that B should act upon it
4. The result that B does act upon it
5. Damages suffered by B
Conspiracy
Elements
1. Combination of two or more persons with the object of wilfully injuring another person
2. Commission of the injury
3. Consequent damage to the other person
Points to be noted
• If someone sent you this notes, Click Here to get updated notes regularly.
• This notes is not prepared by me; I am just typing what faculty are dictating in the class.
I am not adding anything on my own.
• You can access this file (notes) only from the email you have given me.
• If you change your email, you can inform me your new email, do not forget to mention
your roll number while informing your email
• I have created an index for the notes so that you can go to the required topic by clicking
on the topic name you want.
• Above mentioned feature (point – 3) will work or do not work based on the app you are
using to open this file. In PC the feature will work in every app or browser.
• The feature mentioned in row – 3 currently working in the apps mentioned below, you
can download anyone by clicking on them
o Adobe PDF Viewer
o Microsoft Office
