Specific Torts
The named torts and the interests they protect: person, property, reputation, business and family
In one minute
The general principles say when any tort exists. Specific torts are the named wrongs, each with its own essentials. They are grouped by the interest they protect: the person, property, reputation, business and family.
A claimant must fit his facts into a named tort, or ask the court to extend the law. In exams, this topic is asked as a list with a one-line meaning for each tort, and as the question "Is the law of torts a closed list?"
Exam focus
- Frequency: No data
- Usually asked as: No data
Legal provision
- No Act lists the specific torts. They come from case law, and some are touched by statute.
- Information Technology Act, 2000: deals with wrongs online, such as hacking and publishing obscene material, and gives compensation under section 43.
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: many specific torts are also crimes, such as assault, wrongful restraint, defamation and criminal trespass.
- Constitution of India, Articles 21, 32 and 226: violations of life and liberty by the State give public law compensation as well.
Meaning and definition
A specific tort is a wrong with a name, a settled definition and its own elements, such as battery or nuisance. It differs from the general principles of liability, which apply to all torts. The note on the nature of the law of torts explains the pigeon-hole theory, which says that only named torts are actionable, and the wider theory, which allows new torts.
Detailed explanation
Step 1: torts affecting the person
- Assault. An act that makes another person reasonably fear immediate force.
- Battery. The application of unlawful force to another person.
- False imprisonment. Total restraint of a person's liberty without lawful justification.
- Malicious prosecution. Starting a criminal case maliciously and without reasonable cause, which ends in the claimant's favour.
- Nervous shock. A recognised psychiatric illness caused by what a person sees or hears.
- Digital torts. Wrongs through the internet and technology.
Step 2: torts affecting property
- Trespass to land. Unlawful entry on another's land.
- Nuisance. Unlawful interference with the use or enjoyment of land. It is private or public.
- Trespass to goods, conversion and detinue. Interference with movable property.
Step 3: torts affecting reputation
- Defamation. A false statement that lowers a person in the estimation of right-thinking people. It is libel if written and slander if spoken.
Step 4: torts affecting business
- Passing off. Selling one's goods as those of another.
- Injurious falsehood. A malicious false statement about goods or business that causes loss.
- Conspiracy. A combination to injure.
- Negligent misstatement. Careless advice that causes financial loss.
Step 5: torts affecting family relations
The old actions for seduction, enticement of a spouse or child, and harbouring protect the family relation. Their scope is narrow today. They are covered in the note on torts affecting family relations.
Step 6: negligence and liability without fault
Negligence, strict and absolute liability, and vicarious liability cut across the groups. They are covered in their own notes.
Step 7: is the list closed?
Courts have added to the list. Nervous shock, negligent misstatement and absolute liability were recognised after the older torts. The categories are not fixed.
- Specific torts
- The person
- Assault, battery, false imprisonment
- Malicious prosecution, nervous shock
- Property
- Trespass to land, nuisance
- Trespass to goods, conversion, detinue
- Reputation, business and family
- Defamation
- Passing off, injurious falsehood, conspiracy
- Seduction, enticement, harbouring
- The person
Don't confuse: specific torts and the general principles
| Point | General principles | Specific torts |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | All torts | One named wrong |
| Content | Wrongful act, legal damage, fault, defences | Its own definition and essentials |
| Example | Damnum sine injuria | Battery needs an application of force |
Inside a specific tort. A man in Hyderabad slaps another on a bus. This is battery, a named tort with set essentials.
Just outside it. A shopkeeper in Guntur draws customers away by lower prices. No named tort fits, and the general principle of damnum sine injuria applies.
Common mistakes
- Writing that the list of torts is closed. Courts have added new torts.
- Putting defamation under the person. It protects reputation.
- Forgetting that many specific torts are also crimes.
- Mixing nuisance with trespass. Trespass is direct entry. Nuisance is indirect interference.
Apply it
Problem
A neighbour in Vijayawada plays loud music every night. His speaker also sends a vibration through the wall that cracks the plaster in the next house. Which specific tort applies?
Issue. Is this trespass, assault, or nuisance?
Rule. Nuisance is unlawful interference with the use or enjoyment of land. Trespass needs direct entry on the land.
Application. Noise and vibration are indirect interferences with the use of the next house. There is no entry.
Conclusion. The tort is private nuisance. The neighbour may claim damages and an injunction.
Leading case laws
- Stephens v. Myers (1830)
Facts. A man voted out of a parish meeting advanced on the chairman with a clenched fist and was stopped.
Principle. This was an assault, because he was advancing to strike and would have reached the chairman within a second or two.
Why it matters. A named tort with settled essentials.
- Wilkinson v. Downton (1897)
Facts. A false statement made as a joke made a woman seriously ill.
Principle. A wilful act calculated to cause physical harm that does cause it is actionable.
Why it matters. Courts recognised a wrong that no named tort covered.
- Rylands v. Fletcher (1868)
Facts. A reservoir burst through old mine shafts and flooded a neighbouring mine.
Principle. A person who keeps a dangerous thing on his land must keep it in at his peril.
Why it matters. A new tort created by the courts.
How to write this answer in the exam
5-mark answer
- Define a specific tort.
- List the groups: person, property, reputation, business, family.
- Name two torts in each group.
- Note that the list is not closed.
10-mark answer
- Meaning, and the general principles against the named torts.
- Torts affecting the person.
- Torts affecting property.
- Reputation, business and family.
- Negligence and liability without fault.
- Pigeon-hole theory and the growth of new torts.
- Conclusion.
Key points to remember
- Specific torts are named wrongs with their own essentials.
- Groups: person, property, reputation, business, family.
- Many are also crimes.
- The list is not closed. Courts add new torts.
- Nuisance and trespass differ: indirect and direct interference.
Quick self-test
1. Name four torts that affect the person.
Assault, battery, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Nervous shock also belongs here.
2. Which interest does defamation protect?
Reputation.
3. Is the list of torts closed?
No. Courts have added torts such as nervous shock and negligent misstatement.