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 Hilliard, Torts, 1.

The commission or omission of an act by one without right, whereby another receives some injury, directly or indirectly, in person, property, or reputation. "The word 'tort' means nearly the same thing as the expression 'civil wrong.' It denotes an injury inflicted otherwise than by mere breach of contract; or, to be more nicely accurate, a tort is a disturbance of another in rights which the law has created, either in the absence of contract, or in consequence of a relation which a contract had established between the parties." Bish. Non-Cont. Law, § 4. (1) Distinguished from breach of contract. As recognized by the law for the enforcement of rights and redress of injuries, torts may be distinguished from breach of contracts by these qualities: That parties jointly committing torts are severally liable without right to contribution from each other; that the death of either party destroys the right of action; that persons under personal disabilities to contract are liable for their torts; that attachment, arrest, and imprisonment are allowed on claims arising under contracts.

1 Hilliard, Torts, 3.

A tort, however, may grow out of, or make part of, or be coincident with, a contract; as in the familiar case of a fraudulent sale or fraudulent recommendation of a third person. Indeed, the wrong of fraud almost necessarily implies an accompanying contract. In these cases, the law often allows the party injured an election of remedies; that is, he may proceed against the other party either as a debtor or contractor, or as a wrongdoer. 10 Hilliard, Torts, 28; 10 C. B. 83; 24 Conn. 392. (2) Distinguished from crime. The distinction of public wrongs from private crimes, and misdemeanors from civil inan infringement or privation of the civil rights which belong to individuals merely as individuals. "Publi* wrongs or crimes and misdemeanors are a breach and violation of the public rights and duties due to the whole community in its social aggregate capacity."

4 Bl. Comm. 5.