Tort is a French word meaning wrong. The French word Tort is derived from the Latin term Tortum which means twisted. In legal sense Tort is a breach of some duty whereby the one who suffers acquires a right of action against the one who has done wrong. The person who commits the wrong is called tort-feasor and the wrongful act is termed as tort.
Though there is no exact, perfect or concise definition of the term tort yet a lot of attempts have been made to define the term in-order to get a better understanding on what it means. The term tort refers to wrong which is civil in nature and the remedy for such a wrong is in the form of damages.
Damages means the compensation paid in the form of unliquidated damages meaning that the amount of compensation is not quantifiable. In tort the monetary loss is not determined or foreseen before the wrong occurs. Thus, the remedy is in the form of unliquidated damages.
The tort law is based on justice, equity and good conscience. Any wrong in-order to be a Tort must have a claim for unliquidated damages and the wrong must be civil in nature. Tort law comes under the civil branch of law which has evolved out of judicial decisions and there is no statute on Torts.
Tort is a French word meaning wrong. It is a legal wrong which comes under the branch of civil law. In simple words civil law is a part of country’s set of laws that are distinct and different from the criminal laws of that country and the wrongs committed under the civil law are known as civil wrongs.
The duties imposed by the law of torts apply to everyone subject to various exceptions that certain statutes may provide. In law of torts the obligations and duties are not voluntarily assumed like the way it is assumed in contracts and trusts because Tort is a civil wrong but it is not exclusively a breach of contract or a breach of trust. E.g., of Tort would be when some sort of nuisance is caused to any person like causing damage to the property of another or unauthorized interference with the property that belongs to someone else.
The contractual liability and tortious liability are different and distinct from each other even though they both come under the branch of civil law because under Tort the loss is not pre-determined like the way it is pre-determined when there is breach of a contract. Contractual liability arises when there is non-observance of contractual obligations whereas tortious liability arises when the rule of civil conduct which requires one to have socially desirable behavior is not observed
The term tort is a French word meaning wrong. It is quite interesting to know that an English-speaking country has a French term being used by its judiciary. The French word tort is found in England’s judiciary due to the 11th century Norman conquest that brought about a drastic change in the political, economic and social conditions of England.
This invasion and occupation introduced a lot of French words in England and one such word is tort that was introduced in England and which further came to India through the Britishers. Today in India as well Tort law is based on the judicial decisions which is guided by the principles of justice, equity and good conscience.
The law of Torts is based on case laws. There is no specific Act of the legislature which deals with Tort in India. In-order to understand the Tort law one needs to exclusively go through the various cases and judgements of the Courts which deal with the concept of Tort.
There are three essential ingredients of Torts namely:
- Wrong (civil in nature) done to a party.
- The wrong should legally injure the other party.
- There should be some legal remedy recognized under law to make this wrong a tortious liability.
