Question

Edith becomes ill at work, but her boss insists that she finish mopping the shop floor and cleaning the cabinets before she is allowed to leave. He physically prevents her from leaving the premises by watching over her until her work is finished. What tort has occurred?

Answer 1

Tort refers to the act where an action is taken by one person which leads to the occurrence of harm to the other party. There are basically three types of torts:

• Intentional Tort: it is a kind of civil war which occurs when the person intentionally engages himself in harming the other party by either his actions or his words. Examples would be hitting the other party, assault etc.
• Negligence: it refers to the situation when the actions of one party harm the other party, but it was not intended to do so in the first place. It means when the harm to the other party was a result of negligence on the part of the person doing the harm.
• Strict Liability: it refers to the situation where the liability of the loss occurred can be imposed directly on the person doing wrong, and without presenting any kind of proof. And that such act would have caused harm to the person. The example of selling defective products will fall under strict liability tort.

From the above discussion it is clear that the kind of tort which took place was Intentional Tort. The reason being because the boss made sure that Edith would complete her work before leaving the office premise, even after knowing that she was ill. He intentionally kept an eye on her actions so that she does not leave the premises, and ignored her ill health.