INTRODUCTION ON LAW RELATING TO TORTS :

The word ‘tort’ is a French equivalent of English word ‘wrong’. The word tort is derived from Latin language from the word Tortum. Thus, simply stated ‘tort’ means wrong. But every wrong or wrongful act is not a tort. Tort is really a kind of civil wrong as opposed to criminal wrong. Wrongs, in law, are either public or private.

Broadly speaking, public wrongs are the violations of ‘public law and hence amount to be offences against the State, while private wrongs are the breaches of private law, i.e., wrongs against individuals. Public wrongs or crimes are those wrongs which are made punishable under the penal law which belong to the public law group.

Section 2(m) of the Limitation Act, 1963, states: “Tort means a civil wrong which is not exclusively a breach of contract or breach of trust.”

Salmond defines it as ”a civil wrong for which the remedy is a common law action for unliquidated damages and which is not exclusively the breach of a contract or the breach of a trust or other merely equitable obligation.”

Fraser describes it as “an infringement of a right in rem of a private individual giving a right of compensation at the suit of the injured party.”

Winfield says : “Tortious liability arises from the breach of duty, primarily fixed by law; this duty is towards persons generally and its breach is redressable by an action for unliquidated damages”.

Two important elements can be derived from all these definitions, namely: (i) that a tort is a species of civil injury of wrong as opposed to a criminal wrong, and (ii) that every civil wrong is not a tort. Accordingly, it is now possible to distinguish tort from a crime and from a contract, a trust and a quasi-contract. The distinction between civil and criminal wrongs depends on the nature of the appropriate remedy provided by law.