TORRENS SYSTEM. See LAND TITLE AND TRANSFER.
TORT (Fr. tort, from Lat. torquere, to twist, tortus, twisted, wrested aside). A private or civil wrong or injury. A wrong independent of contract. 1 Hill. Torts 1. The breach of a legal duty. Big. Torts 3. In admiralty it includes wrong suffered in consequence of the negligence or malfeasance of others, where the remedy at common law is by an action on the case; Mills v. U. S., 46 Fed. 738, 12 L. R. A. 673; Smith v. Bur nett, 10 App. D. C. 469.
The right of action is very broad in France. Thus: "Tout fait quelconque de l'homme, qui cause it autrui un dommage, oblige celui par la faute duquel it est arrive e. le reparer.
"Chacun est respousable du dommage qu'il a cause non seulement par son fait, mais en core par sa negligence ou par son impru dence." Civil Code of France, secs. 1382, 1383.
The law recognizes certain rights as be longing to every individual, such as the right to personal security, to liberty, to property, to reputation, to the services of a daughter or servant, to the companionship of a wife, etc. Any violation of one of these rights is a tort. In the like manner the law recognizes certain duties as attached to every individual, as the duty of not deceiving by false representa tions, of not persecuting another maliciously, of not using your own property so as to injure another, etc. The breach of any of these duties coupled with consequent damages to any one is also a tort. Underhill, Torts 4.
The performance of an act forbidden by a statute or the omission or failure to per form any act specifically imposed by law, is generally equivalent to an act done with in tent to cause wrongful injury ; Poll. Torts 23. No action will lie for doing that which the legislature has authorized, if it be done without negligence: id. 121.
The word torts is used to describe that branch of the law which treats of the re dress of injuries which are neither crimes nor arise from the breach of contracts. All acts or omissions of which the law takes cog nizance may in general be classed under the three heads of contracts, torts, and crimes. Contracts include agreements and the in juries resulting from their breach. Iorts include injuries to individuals, and crimes injurious to the public or state. 1 Hill. Torts 1.
This division of the redress of injuries by civil suit into actions of tort and actions of contract is not thoroughly accurate. For often the party injured has his election whether he will proceed by tort or by con tract, as in the case of a fraudulent sale or the fraudulent recommendation of a third person ; 10 C. B. 83 ; v. Carter, 24 Conn.
392. But for general usage this division has been found sufficient, and is universally adopted ; Cooley, Torts 2.
As the same act may sometimes constitute the breach of a contract as well as a tort, so the same act may often constitute a tort and also a crime. For a tort may amount to, or may be likely to lead to, a breach of the peace, and thus become a matter of public concern. The torts which are usually at the same time crimes are assault, libel, and nui sance. In such cases it is the general rule of law that a public prosecution and a private action for damages can both be maintained either at the same or at different times ; 1 B. & P. 191; 3 Bla. dom. 122. See Williams v. Dickenson, 28 Fla. 90, 9 South: 847.
According to Sir F. Pollo‘ck, from the point of view of the plaintiff as regards the kind of damage suffered by him, actionable wrongs may be divided into four groups : 1. Of a strictly personal kind ; 2. Those which affect ownership and rights analogous to owner ship; 3. Those which extend to the safety, convenience and profit of life generally ; 4. Those which may, according to circumstanc es, result in damage to person, property or estate, or any or all of them.
Personal wrongs touching a man's body or honor or assault, false imprisonment, seduc tion or enticing away of members of his fam ily. Wrongs to property are trespass to lands or goods, conversion of goods, disturbance of easements and other individual rights in property not amounting to exclusive sion. Trespass is essentially a wrong to pos session. Then there are infringements of in corporeal rights which, though not the sub ject of trespass proper, are exclusive rights of enjoyment and have many incidents of ownership. Actions (in some cases expressly given by statute) lie for the piracy of copy right, patents and trade-marks. Wrongs to a man's estate in the larger sense above noted are defamation, deceit, so-called slander of title, and fraudulent trade competition, which are really varieties of 'deceit, malicious prose cution and nuisance. Finally we have the results of negligence and omission to perform special duties regarding the safety of one's neighbors or customers or of the which may affect persons, property, or estate generally. See Encyc. Brit. v. Tort.