What a Tort Is
What a Tort Is
Civil wrongs, protected interests, duties, and the civil-criminal split.
Structured Visual
Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-08-28; not legal advice; Render structure, refuse interpretation, cite, abstain, and hand off.
RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.
Scope and honesty note
Jurisdiction: United States common-law overview with selected Texas statutory applications; as of 2026-08-28; jurisdictions and causes of action vary; not legal advice. Synthetic facts are classroom inputs, not findings. This lesson renders structure, refuses unsupported interpretation, cites, abstains, and hands off.
See the essential structure first
Start with this deliberately incomplete structure, then use the pinned authorities, worked application, exceptions, and handoff below. This deliberately incomplete preview has 4 nodes; exceptions and legal consequences remain in the sourced prose below.
Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-08-28; not legal advice; Render structure, refuse interpretation, cite, abstain, and hand off.
RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.
Begin with the governing doctrine
A tort is a civil wrong for which law supplies a remedy, usually because conduct invades a protected interest or breaches a duty owed to the claimant. Intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability use different prima facie structures. Tort law is distinct from contract because duties may arise independently of agreement, and distinct from criminal law because a private plaintiff ordinarily seeks civil relief while the state prosecutes offenses for public purposes under different burdens and procedures.
Pin a personal-duty account of negligence
Cardozo's bounded passage ties negligence to a reasonably perceived risk and a duty owed within its relational scope. Caption: Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad; court: New York Court of Appeals; decision date: 1928-05-29. Verbatim opinion excerpt: “The risk reasonably to be perceived defines the duty to be obeyed, and risk imports relation; it is risk to another or to others within the range of apprehension” Source: 248 N.Y. 339; pinpoint 248 N.Y. at 344; https://www.neochart.com/catalog/cases/ny/volume_248/0339_01/index.html; data via neochart.com, snapshot 2026-08.
Pin Texas injury-action definitions
This provision supplies real statutory definitions used in personal-injury and wrongful-death procedure without replacing common-law tort elements. Verbatim statutory text: “DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter: (1) "Corporation" means a municipal, private, public, or quasi-public corporation other than a county or a common or independent school district. (2) "Person" means an individual, association of individuals, joint-stock company, or corporation or a trustee or receiver of an individual, association of individuals, joint-stock company, or corporation. (3) "Death" includes, for an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive. (4) "Individual" includes an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.” Source: Tex. Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.001; https://www.neochart.com/catalog/texas/civil_practice/chapter_71/section_71_001/tex_cp_71_001_0d0b9e50291f/tex_civil_practice_remedies_code_sec_71_001_definitions_in_t_0001/index.html; data via neochart.com, snapshot 2026-08.
Pin the synthetic fact pattern
A synthetic delivery robot strikes a pedestrian after a routing decision. The record separately stores bodily harm, damaged property, operator conduct, system design, and any public investigation.
Work the application
The trace first asks what protected interest and duty are asserted, then selects an intentional, negligent, strict, or statutory theory. It does not infer a tort from injury alone. A civil damages claim, a regulatory inquiry, and any criminal process remain distinct records with different decision makers and proof rules.
Read the populated authority-and-fact record
The populated rows distinguish the claimant's interest, possible duty sources, liability families, civil remedy, and public-enforcement path. The rendered record contains 12 populated rows.
Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-08-28; not legal advice; Render structure, refuse interpretation, cite, abstain, and hand off.
RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.
Read the complete record
The complete record keeps sources, stated facts, and questions for review separate. Authority records: Verbatim snapshot sources. 248 N.Y. 339: Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad. Tex. Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.001: 71.001. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:. Synthetic facts: Classroom facts only. Conduct: A delivery robot strikes a pedestrian after a routing decision. Interests: Bodily security, property, reputation, and economic interests are separate. Proceedings: Civil claim and possible public enforcement are distinct records. Application trace: Elements, limits, and unresolved questions. Wrong: Identify a duty or protected interest personal to the claimant. Elements: Intent, negligence, strict liability, and statutory claims use different tests. Civil-criminal split: Private remedy and public punishment differ in parties, purpose, and proof.
Narrow summary
Start with the claimant's protected interest, the source of duty, and the correct liability family before analyzing elements, defenses, causation, or damages.