TORTS v. LAW OF CONTRACTS, TORTS v. LAW OF CRIMES AND TORTS v. QUASI CONTRACT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Submitted by
AVIMUKT MISHRA
Division: A Roll No: 15010224012 Class: BBA LLB
Of Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA
Symbiosis International University, PUNE
In
AUGUST, 2015
Under the guidance of
Dr. C J RAWANDALE,
Associate Professor, SLS-NOIDA
Prof. NITYA THAKUR,
Teaching Associate, SLS-NOIDA
INTRODUCTION:
Torts-
Prof. P H Winfield: Tortious Liability arises from breach of a duty primarily fixed by law; this duty is towards persons generally and its breach is redressable by an action for unliquidated damages. Section 2 (m) Limitation Act, 1963: Tort is a civil wrong which is not exclusively breach of contract or breach of trust.
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It defines the Contract as an agreement enforceable by law.
An agreement cannot become a contract unless it can be enforceable by law. To be enforceable by law, a contract must contain all the essential elements of a valid contract.
Law of Crimes-
It is a set of law that relates to crime. It regulates social conduct and ensures health, safety, and moral welfare of people. It includes the punishment of people who violate these laws. Criminal law is a public law, rest are private law.
Quasi-Contracts-
Under special circumstances, obligations resembling those created by a contract are imposed by law although there is no contract between the parties. Such contracts are called
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Torts are legal wrongs against individuals. Eg-Defamation, Assault and Battery. Crimes are wrongs against the society punishable by the state. Eg-Murder, Treason and Rape
2. Torts lead the victim to be provided compensation. Crimes result into imposing punishment on guilt persons.
3. Torts are pursued as suits in courts of law. Crimes are prosecuted by the state.
4. Torts are mostly creatures of courts. Eg-Negligence, Trespassing and Nuisance. Crimes are creature of the parliament. Eg-The Penal Code.
S.NO. TORTS QUASI-CONTRACTS
1. Tort is an infringement of right in rem of a private individual where remedies are available. Quasi contract covers those situations where a person is held liable to another without any argument for money or benefit received by him to which the other person is better entitled.
2. Tort is not any kind of contract. Quasi contract is a hypothetical contract implied by law.
3. But in the case of tortuous liability there may not any subject of benefit. In the matter of quasi contractual liability a person must get unjust benefit which belongs to another person.
4. Rights in rem. In case of tortuous liability the duty is towards persons generally. Rights in personam. But in case of quasi-contract the duty is towards a
Legally enforceable "A contract is a legally enforceable promise or set of promises. In other words, when promises have the status of contract, the contracting party harmed by a breach of the contract is entitled to obtain legal remedies against the breaching party." (Scheffel, Evan, and Jane P. Mallor, 2010. Chapter 9, Page 321) The Lambert v. Barron case showed us an example of what happens when a contract does not contain all elements to become a legally enforceable contract. Mr. Barron did not accept the offer, Mr. Lambert made no promise to recover money from the disputed contracts owed to Mr. Barron, so there was no promise to perform.
Tort, one of the crucial subjects of study when analyzing common law jurisdictions. Tort, is an action which causes another person or party to suffer harm or loss []. The person who has committed a tortious act is called the tortfeasor while the person who suffered harm or loss from such act is called the injured party or the victim. Although crimes may be torts, torts may not be crimes [] simply because a tort may not have broken a law. In fact, one must understand that the key idea of tort is not to punish the tortfeasor(s) but rather to compensate the victim(s).
...ulations in the U.S. judicial system is “most define the law as a system of principles and processes by which people in a society deal with disputes and problems, seeking to solve or settle them without resorting to force” (p. 15). Some situations cannot be rectified in a board meeting. However, negligence is in the category of objectives of tort law, it is also the most popular lawsuit pursued by patients against medical professionals against doctors and healthcare organizations (Bal, 2009). Objectives of Tort Law
Tort is a word developed to describe in general the different types of claims that are normally imposing economic and financial losses that are because of some kind of misbehavior, apart from breach of contract. The term is used to refer to this type of claims, false presentations, fraud, breach of contract, encouragement, unfair competition, trade name and trademark infringement and interference with business relationships (Emanuel, S.
"A contract is a legally enforceable promise or set of promises. In other words, when promises have the status of contract, the contracting party harmed by a breach of the contract is entitled to obtain legal remedies against the breaching party" (Mallor et al., 2015, p. 320)
after suffering harm from the acts of the other party (Turner, 2013). A tort is a civil wrong
As mentioned earlier, there are certain requirements which must be met for a contract to be valid; requirements needed include agreement, consideration, contractual capacity and legality. For an agreement to be valid there must be an offer and acceptance present. In other words, there must be an intent known and understood for the contact to have an agreement. With that being said, there is no
Negligence is a concept that was passed from Great Britain to the United States. It arose out of common law, which is made up of court decisions that considered whether a defendant had an obligation to act with greater care. It is conduct which falls below the standard established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm and involves a failure to fulfill a duty that causes injury to another. Many torts depend on whether there was intent but negligence does not. Negligence looks to see whether the person had a duty to act with care. It emphasizes the need for people to act reasonably in society. This is important because accidents will happen. Negligence helps the law establish whether these accidents could have been avoided, if there was a breach of duty to act reasonably, and if that breach was the cause of injury to that person. By focusing on the conduct rather than the intent of the defendant, the tort of negligence reflects society’s desire to
HILLIARD, J. And O’SULLIVAN, J. (2012) The Law of Contract [Online] 5th Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available from - http://books.google.co.uk/ [Accessed: 2nd January 2014]
Considerable effort has been expended in attempts to identify the purpose of the law of torts. However, the range of interests protected by the law of torts makes any search for a single aim underlying the law a difficult one. For example, actions for wrongful interference with goods or trespasses to land serve fundamentally different ends from an action seeking compensation for a personal injury. Nevertheless, following the research I have carried out the fundamental purpose of the law of torts is to achieve compensation and appeasement and to obtain deterrence and justice, in order to determine the conditions under which certain losses may be shifted to persons who created the risks which in some way led to the losses. In doing so, the law of torts attempts to balance the utility of a particular type of conduct against the harm it may cause. During the course of this essay I will discuss each function separately and I will investigate how each function achieves its individual resolution of a tort.
One of the last remaining strongholds of classical contract law is the notion that contracts require offer and acceptance therefore, in order for a contract to become binding, offer, acceptance, consideration and intention to create legal relations must exist. However contracts are formed in different ways for each different circumstance. (Shawn Bayern, Offer and Acceptance in Modern Contract Law: A Needles Concept, 103 Cal. L. Rev. 67, 102 (2015)
The basic law of a contract is an agreement between two parties or more, to deliver a service or a product. And reach a consensus about the terms and conditions that is enforced by law and a contract can be only valid if it is lawful other than that there can’t be a contract. For a contract to exist the parties must have serious intentions, agreement, contractual capacity meaning a party must be able to carry a responsibility, lawful, possibility of performance and formalities. Any duress, false statements, undue influence or unconscionable dealings could make a contract unlawful and voidable.
Textbook on Torts 8th edition. Michael A.Jones [2] P419. Textbook on Torts 8th edition. Michael A.Jones [3] The Law of Torts. 9th edition.
This case mentioned below is a fine example of understanding the Law of Contract in a better manner. (Gerald, 2014).
A contract is generally considered to be an exchange of promises or an agreement between parties which in due course legally binds the parties; this can be enforced by the English Law. A contract is always, referred to the basic foundations of Contract Law, which refers to promises being kept amongst two parties. It is clear that all people make contracts nowadays and do not even consider for a moment that they are forming contracts; these can be formal or informal, oral or written.