Exercise 6. Answer the questions to the text.

1) According to the text, what are the two main objectives of tort law?

2) An injured party can sue for damages or for an injunction. According to the text, what types of loss can be compensated by an award for damages?

3) What does the term “injunction” mean?

4) A manufacturer produces a dangerous toy train. What category of tort is this?

Exercise 7. Match the adjectives (1-6) with the nouns (a-f) they collocate with in the text.

1. civil a. damages

2. contractual b. wrong

3. injured c. misrepresentation

4. fraudulent d. party

5. medical e. relations

6. monetary f. expenses

Exercise 8. Use the collocations you formed in Exercise 8 to complete these sentences.

1) While a crime such as murder or shoplifting is a wrong committed against
society, a tort is a ………………committed against an individual.

2) Torts are handled in the civil courts, where the……………brings an action against the wrongdoer.

3) In most cases, the injured party is entitled to remedies under the law, such
as …………………

4) In medical malpractice cases, the damages awarded to the injured party may
include lost wages and ……………..

5) The tort of …………occurs when one of the parties to a contract makes a false statement about a fact and knows it is not true, and this fact is acted on.

6) When a person stops parties from entering into a contract, for example, this person is said to interfere in …………..

Exercise 9. Listening (Аудирование № 8 на moodle). Listen to the text and fill in the missing words.

There was another 1) ......... yesterday morning at the traffic lights in the village of Bradbury. Jill Smith, who was driving a blue Ford Fiesta was 2) ........ the junction after the traffic lights had turned green when a lorry 3).......... into the side of her car. The driver of the lorry hadn’t noticed the traffic lights because they were 4) ........ by a large tree. As a result of the accident, the car was seriously 5) .......... . Miss Smith wasn’t seriously 6) ......... . She was taken to the local hospital to be treated for 7) ....... . The lorry driver was 8) ............ to the police station to make a statement. “This is the 9) ...... accident to have happened this month. The Town Council should 10) ........... the tree, or there will be further accidents”, a villager said.

Exercise 10. Read and translate the text.

HOW DO CRIMES AND TORTS DIFFER?

A crime is an offense against society. It is a public wrong.

A tort, in contrast, is a private or civil wrong – an offense against an individual. If a tort occurs, the person injured can sue and obtain a judgment for money damages from the person who committed the tort. The money is intended to compensate for the injury.

One act can be both a tort and a crime. Then the defendant is both criminally liable (for a fine and/or a jail sentence) and civilly liable (for monetary damages).

What are the elements of a tort?

There are certain elements which are common to all torts. In a trial, these elements must be proved to establish liability (legal responsibility) for any specific tort. The elements of a tort are:

1. a duty owed by one person to another to do or not to do a certain thing,

2. violation or breach of the duty,

3. injury recognized by the law, and

4. proximate causation of the injury by the breach.

The Duty

Since everyone has the duty to respect the rights of others, eve­ryone therefore has certain resultant duties. The following are the principal duties created by tort law:

1. the duty not to injure the another person: this includes bodily injury, injury to some­one’s reputation, or invasion of someone’s privacy,

2. the duty not to interfere with the property rights of others, such as by trespassing on their land,

3. the duty not to interfere with the economic rights of others, such as the right to contract.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 3232