Also known as:intentional wrongs · intentional tort
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A wrong in which the actor's mental state amounts to intention, purpose, or design. The category encompasses torts such as battery that require purposeful or substantially certain harmful or offensive contact and excludes merely negligent or strict-liability conduct.
Sources & Authorities· 2 primary sources
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Cases
Restatements
Dictionaries
How it applies
Common Examples
6
Third-Party Assault After Negligent Access
Integrity Partners left a side door unlocked and failed to check identification after receiving repeated warnings that banned individuals had caused prior disturbances. Henry, a previously banned patron, entered undetected, became intoxicated, and intentionally dropped a glass bottle onto Norman below. The court must decide whether Henry's intentional act supersedes Integrity Partners' negligence because the company should have realized the likelihood that an unauthorized person would exploit the open access to commit an intentional wrong.
Targeted Defamatory Blog Post
Owen, based in State E, published a blog post falsely accusing Prime Indemnity of routinely denying valid claims from residents of a specific city in State F. He then purchased online advertisements that appeared exclusively to users with IP addresses in that city. Prime Indemnity sued in State F. The court applies the effects test to determine whether Owen's intentional wrong, expressly aimed at State F and known to cause harm there, supports personal jurisdiction despite Owen's lack of physical presence in the forum.
Systemic Seniority Rule Challenge
A union maintained a seniority system that perpetuated the effects of pre-act hiring patterns. Minority employees sued, alleging that the system itself constituted an intentional wrong. The court distinguishes between claims based on present intentional discrimination and claims based on the ongoing effects of past practices, holding that the latter do not automatically establish an intentional wrong under Title VII.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States431 U.S. 324, 335 n.15 (1977)
Supervisor Harassment and Vicarious Liability
A supervisor at Burlington Industries made repeated unwelcome sexual advances toward Ellerth and threatened adverse employment consequences if she refused. Ellerth sued the employer. The court examines whether the supervisor's intentional wrong creates vicarious liability for the company and whether the employer can assert an affirmative defense when no tangible employment action occurred.
Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth524 U.S. 742 (1998)
Preemption of Intentional Tort Claims
Rose Cipollone's estate brought state-law claims against cigarette manufacturers alleging that the companies committed intentional wrongs by concealing the dangers of smoking. The manufacturers argued federal labeling statutes preempted those claims. The court determines the extent to which federal law displaces state intentional-wrong theories while preserving others.
Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc.893 F.2d 541 (3d Cir.1990), affirmed in part and reversed in part, 505 U.S. 504 (1992)
Exculpatory Clause for Intentional Conduct
A hospital patient signed a release purporting to waive liability for any injury occurring during treatment. After a nurse intentionally shoved the patient into a wheelchair, causing a dislocated shoulder, the patient sued. The court holds that the release cannot bar recovery for an intentional wrong because public policy prohibits exculpation of deliberate injurious conduct.
Tunkl v. Regents of the University of California383 P.2d 441, 445-46, (Cal. 1963)
Common questions
Frequently Asked
4
What mental state distinguishes an intentional wrong from negligence?+
An intentional wrong requires that the actor either desires the harmful or offensive contact or knows with substantial certainty that the contact will result. Negligence, by contrast, involves only a failure to exercise reasonable care without any purpose or substantial certainty of causing the contact.
Supporting sources
Does an intentional wrong require proof that the defendant intended the precise injury that occurred?+
No. The defendant need only intend the harmful or offensive contact itself. Liability extends to all harms that flow directly from that contact even if the defendant did not anticipate the full extent or particular form of the resulting injury.
Can a third party's intentional wrong relieve an original actor of liability?+
A third party's intentional tort or crime is ordinarily a superseding cause unless the original actor realized or should have realized the likelihood that the situation created would afford an opportunity for such an intentional wrong. When the risk of the third-party intentional act was itself one of the hazards that made the original conduct negligent, the original actor remains liable.
Supporting sources
How does the effects test apply personal jurisdiction to an intentional wrong committed from outside the forum?+
A defendant who commits an intentional tort expressly aimed at the forum state, causing harm the defendant knows will be suffered there, may be subject to personal jurisdiction even without physical contacts in the forum. Targeted advertising or forum-specific content that directs the intentional wrong at forum residents satisfies the express-aiming requirement.
Supporting sources
. But the general rule is applicable in this products-liability case, and the so-called “stream-of-commerce” doctrine cannot displace it. I This case arises from a products-liability…
of making an arrest pursuant to warrant he knew to be void); Wilson v. O'Neal , 118 So. 2d 101 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1960) (law enforcement officer not liable in damages for obtaining an…
action in Manitowoc County Circuit Court, Judge Allan J. Deehr presiding, seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Steenberg. The case was tried before a jury on December 1, 1994. At…
Civil ProcedureJurisdiction and venue · Personal jurisdictionUBEFoundational