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Understanding Wrongful Acts in Business Management - Torts & Legal Remedies

Ignorance is not a privilege. It is your misfortune. What you do not know can hurt you. “Torts” means “wrongful acts”.

If someone has wronged another person, what are his legal rights? The law of torts has the answer. There are various types of torts or wrongful acts that can be committed such as negligence, nuisance, trespass, harassment and defamation. Participants will learn the basic torts/wrongful acts and its remedies in this course.

Formal lectures on principles of law and practices, followed by case-studies and case-presentations, and educational video presentation will be used to reinforce the practical applications of the law in a real-life environment.

Outline

1.Negligence

• duty of care
• breach of duty: standard of care
• causation and intervening acts
• foreseeable harm
• omission in rescue cases
• nervous shock cases
• precautions & warnings
• children
• egg shell skull rule
• defective product liability
• damage must be foreseeable and too ‘remote’

2.Nuisance

• private nuisance, public nuisance
• harassment
• interference with enjoyment of land
• duration of interference
• abnormal sensitivity
• public benefit
• defences, damages, injunction and abatement
• public health & public rights protected
• convenience: obstruction of highway
• safety: dangers to highway & roads

3. Employers’ Liability

• proper plant & equipment
• competent staff
• safe place of work: Workplace, Safety & Health Laws
• SARS, infection control & the law
• defences
• volenti non fit injuria
• contributory negligence

4. Dangerous Premises

• liability of occupiers to visitors & trespassers
• independent contractors
• warning & acceptance of risk
• exclusion of liability

5. Strict Liability

• rule in Rylands v Fletcher
• dangerous things & non-natural use
• escape: who can sue?

6. Trespass to Land

• airspace & subsoil
• interference & justification
• rights of entry
• possession: who can sue?
• remedies available

7. Trespass to the Person

• battery & assault
• criminal injuries
• false imprisonment
• voluntary assumption of risk

8. Defamation

• what is defamatory?
• libel & slander
• publication & reference to plaintiff
• truth & justification
• absolute privilege & qualified privilege
• what is “fair comment”?
• matters of public interest
• malice

9. Remedies

• types of damages: general and special monetary awards
• medical and other expenses
• loss of earnings & salary
• pain & suffering
• loss of amenity

Profile of Catherine Tay

Catherine Tay has over 35 years of lecturing experience as an Associate Professor lecturing business law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School. She is an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. She is also a barrister-at-law (of Lincoln’s Inn, United Kingdom). She is an author of more than 8 law books, including her best-seller book title called "Contract Law - A layman Guide".

She studied law at Queen Mary College, University of London and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and with a Master of Laws, in which she specialised in Company, Shipping, Insurance and Marine Insurance Laws.

She has facilitated seminars and in-house training courses for many business law topics such as tenancy agreements, contract administration management, procurement contracts, legal and practical aspects of tender management, Service Level Agreements and Outsourcing contracts, oil and gas contract management, insurance contracts, Intellectual Property Laws and PDPA data privacy laws. She is an examiner on law subjects for a number of professional bodies and universities in Singapore and overseas. She has lectured at the NUS Extension in professional and business management law courses.

She was an adjunct lecturer at NUS Institute of System Science, in IT outsourcing contracts for over 20 years. She is the Honourable Legal Advisor for Singapore Optometric Association, as well as for the Singapore Institute of Engineering Technologists.