Category:Tort Law

Tort Law

A tort, in Canada, is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. It can include the intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, financial losses, injuries, invasion of privacy and many other things.

Tort law, is a suite where the purpose of a legal action is to obtain a private civil remedy such as damages, may be compared to criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable by the state. Tort law may also be contrasted with contract law, which also provides a civil remedy after breach of duty; but whereas the contractual obligation is one chosen by the parties, the obligation in both tort and crime is imposed by the state. In both contract and tort, successful claimants must show that they have suffered foreseeable loss or harm as a direct result of the breach of duty.

Gladu v Robineau, 2017 ONSC 37 (CanLII)

[295] Contract vs. Tort:

A representation has been defined as “a statement or assertion made by one party to the other before or at any time of the contract of some matter or circumstances relating to it.” Such statements may indeed be, or become terms of the contract, in which event they will have effect as such. However, if a representation is not and never becomes a term, its legal character and consequences are different.

Terms are contractual and the failure to fulfill the promise contained in a term gives rise to an action for breach of contract. Representations are non-contractual. If they are not true the appropriate remedy is not a an action for breach of contract, but the avoidance or rescission of a contract entered into in consequence of the representation, and, possibly, a tort action for damages.

See Alevizos v. Nirula, 2003 MBCA 148 (CanLII), 180 Man. R. (2d) 186, at para. 36.

Other Concepts

• Tort of Civil Fraud
• Negligent Misrepresentation
• Latent Defects