Scribd
Upload
124 views

ElibraryDataFile Law of Torts 0

Torts require a wrongful act, either an act of commission or omission. For liability to attach, the act must be voluntary rather than involuntary and accompanied by the requisite mental state, such as malice, intention, negligence or motive. Intention refers to the immediate purpose of an act, while motive refers to purposes beyond the obvious. Malice in law refers to the intent to do a wrongful act without just cause or excuse. Intention is a legal element in determining liability, while motive is a factual element.

Uploaded by

Abhi Tripathi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
124 views

ElibraryDataFile Law of Torts 0

Torts require a wrongful act, either an act of commission or omission. For liability to attach, the act must be voluntary rather than involuntary and accompanied by the requisite mental state, such as malice, intention, negligence or motive. Intention refers to the immediate purpose of an act, while motive refers to purposes beyond the obvious. Malice in law refers to the intent to do a wrongful act without just cause or excuse. Intention is a legal element in determining liability, while motive is a factual element.

Uploaded by

Abhi Tripathi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

Law of Torts

Some General Elements in Torts


Act and Omission
To constitute a tort there must be a wrongful act.
The word “act” in this context is used in a wide sense
to include both positive and negative acts.
An omission is failure to do an act as a whole.
The law does not impose liability for mere omission.
Voluntary and Involuntary Act
A voluntary act may be distinguished from an involuntary act
by dividing the former into :
 A willed muscular contraction,
 Its circumstances and
 Its consequences
An act has no natural boundaries and it is for the law to
determine in each particular case what circumstances and
what consequences shall be counted within the compass of
the act with which it is concerned.
Omissions like positive acts may be voluntary or involuntary.
Mental Elements
Even a voluntary act, except in those cases where the liability is
strict , is not enough to fasten liability and it has to be
accompanied with requisite mental element, i.e., malice,
intention, negligence or motive to make it an actionable tort
assuming that other necessary ingredients of the tort are present.
Malice is synonymous with intention.
Intention is an internal fact.
Motive is the ulterior object or purpose of doing an act.
A preliminary point should be clarified at the very outset; this is
the difference, in this context, between intention, which I take to
refer to immediate ends or purposes, and motive, which I take to
refer to ends or purposes beyond the immediately obvious.
These various interpretations can be grouped under
four main headings: (1) spite or ill-will; (2) any
improper motive; (3) the intent to do a wrongful act;
(4) the intent to inflict injury without just cause or
excuse.
One of the meanings given to "malice in law yy is the
intent to do a wrongful act.
Though this looks at first sight more like a
connotation used in criminal law, rather than the law
of torts, it Binds its way into cases of tort.
The most famous description of malice in, this sense is contained in
the judgment of Bowen L.J. in the Mogul case." There he said that
“maliciously . . . means and implies an intention to do an act which
is wrongful to the detriment of another. . . . The term 'wrongful'
imports in its turn the infringement of some right."
More recently, in Jones v. Motor Surveys Ltd.,’l Roxburgh J. referred
to malice as the “wilful and intentional doing of damage without
just cause or excuse ”
For example, in defamation or injurious falsehood, or malicious
prosecution, and possibly in some instances of nuisance, a number
of facts or conclusions have to be determined before it can be said
that the defendant is liable. Motive is only one of these facts or
conclusions.
On the other hand, intention is a question of law. It is not
just a factual element in the determination of liability: it is
the essential legal element upon which turns the issue of
liability.
Practical difference can be found between motive and
intention. “Improper motive” is a question to be determined
by consideration of the evidence, whereas “ intention ” (as
here used) is an artificial or technical notion of law, which
depends partly upon the subjective desires of the defendant,
partly upon the objective policy of the law. “ Intention ) for
our purposes is not merely “ desire” or “ aim ”

You might also like