Employment and Law of Tort - Essay Example

Employment and Law of Tort Tort law deals with the obligations and rights of people who have suffered harm at the hands of others. It provides relief and justice to those who have been subject to unjust, thus dealing with cases not necessarily illegal in nature (Thefreedictionary.com 1962) Torts refer to any civil crime or wrongdoing that causes harm to another person’s life and property. According to the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 46, (1965) (as cited by Gironda 2007) “one who by extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another is subject to liability for such emotional distress, and if bodily harm to the other results from it, for such bodily harm.

” In our scenarios, it is seen that the first case deals with the aspect of tort law dealing with emotional distress caused by the employer. It must be noted that in order to establish the occurrence of intentional emotional distress, the plaintiff or the person inflicting the tort should show any of the four patterns as indicated by Biotech.law.lsu.edu (1983)1. The defendant acted intentionally or recklessly; 2. His conduct was extreme and outrageous; 3. The cause of emotional distress must be the defender’s conduct4.

Conduct is of a source of severe emotional distress of the plaintiff.As evident in the scenario provided the dismissal of the employee without any prior notice or action falls under torts.Moving onwards to the second scenario, a trick played by the chef resulted in physical injury to the cashier thus breaking his wrist. This is a clear example of assault and battery. Stender and Steele (2009) mention in their study that according to the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 18 (1965), “one is subject to liability for battery if: (a) he acts intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact with the person of the other or a third person, or an imminent apprehension of such a contact; and (b) a harmful contact with the person of the other directly or indirectly results”.

In our case, although direct physical contact did not occur, but the action of one person resulted in physical harm to another and is thus categorized as battery. Bestattorneysonline.com (2012) describes the tort of assault as the fear of the plaintiff whereby he is of the idea that the defender might cause him physical harm. In other words, the injury has not been inflicted but rather a threat has been made or action showing the intention of causing hurt has been done. On the other hand, battery is labeled as the harmful act itself, i.e. the injury has been inflicted with direct and intentional force to cause harm or damage to another person.

All torts are liable to punishment which varies according to the intensity and degree of tort. Reference List:Bestattorneysonline.com (2012) Legal Articles - What is the Difference Between Assault and Battery? [online] Available at: http://www.bestattorneysonline.com/articles/makhsudul-islam/what-is-the-difference-between-assault-and-battery/368/ [Accessed: 17 Dec 2012].Biotech.law.lsu.edu (1983) Elements of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress. [online] Available at: http://biotech.law.lsu.

edu/Courses/tortsF01/IIEM.htm [Accessed: 17 Dec 2012].Gironda S. (2007) [online] Available at: http://apps.americanbar.org/labor/annualconference/2007/materials/data/papers/v1/010.pdf [Accessed: 17 Dec 2012].Stender J, Steele R (2012) Employment Torts [online] Available at: http://apps.americanbar.org/labor/lel-annualcle/09/materials/data/papers/108.pdf [Accessed: 17 Dec 2012].TheFreeDictionary.com (1962) Tort Law. [online] Available at: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Tort+Law [Accessed: 17 Dec 2012].