AL Bar Torts 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A landowner in Alabama owes the highest duty of care to which category of entrant?
- Licensees
- Trespassers
- Invitees (Correct answer)
- Social guests
Correct answer: Invitees
Invitees—those who enter for a business purpose or on public land—are owed the highest duty: reasonable care to inspect and make safe.
Question 2: Res ipsa loquitur allows an inference of negligence when the type of accident ordinarily does not occur without negligence, the defendant had exclusive control, and:
- The plaintiff suffered severe injuries
- The plaintiff did not contribute to the accident (Correct answer)
- Expert testimony confirms negligence
- The accident occurred on defendant's property
Correct answer: The plaintiff did not contribute to the accident
Res ipsa loquitur also requires that the plaintiff was not contributorily negligent in bringing about the injury.
Question 3: Proximate cause in negligence limits liability by requiring that the plaintiff's injury be:
- Directly caused without intervening events
- A foreseeable type of harm from the defendant's breach (Correct answer)
- The most serious possible consequence of the breach
- Witnessed by third parties
Correct answer: A foreseeable type of harm from the defendant's breach
Proximate cause (legal cause) requires that the harm be a foreseeable type of result flowing from the defendant's breach of duty.
Question 4: Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer is vicariously liable for the torts of an employee committed:
- At any time if the employee used employer's equipment
- Within the scope of the employee's employment (Correct answer)
- Against other employees only
- Only if the employer knew of the risk
Correct answer: Within the scope of the employee's employment
Respondeat superior imposes liability on the employer for employee torts committed within the scope of employment, even without the employer's fault.
Question 5: Nuisance requires interference with the plaintiff's use and enjoyment of land that is:
- Intentional and trivial
- Substantial and unreasonable (Correct answer)
- Physical and permanent
- Caused by negligence only
Correct answer: Substantial and unreasonable
A private nuisance requires a substantial and unreasonable interference with another's use and enjoyment of their property.
Question 6: The tort of false imprisonment requires that the defendant's conduct:
- Physically restrain the plaintiff in a locked space
- Intentionally confine the plaintiff to a bounded area without consent or legal authority (Correct answer)
- Cause the plaintiff to fear physical harm
- Be observed by witnesses
Correct answer: Intentionally confine the plaintiff to a bounded area without consent or legal authority
False imprisonment requires intentional confinement within a bounded area without consent, though physical touching or a locked room is not required.
AL Bar Torts 2
A landowner in Alabama owes the highest duty of care to which category of entrant?