Question

Barry's Inc. sells crayons and pastels that are marketed as safe for use by children. However, several accounts of lead poisoning were reported in children who used the products. An investigation revealed that the company was knowingly manufacturing colors that contained a significant amount of a toxic heavy metal. Which of the following torts has Barry's committed?

Multiple choice

A) Battery

B) Disparagement

C) Misrepresentation

D) Professional Malpractice

Answer 1

Solution:

Let's look at each of the given option closely, and reason out why that suits/doesn't suit to the case presented in the question.

Battery tort occurs when there is an intentional harm from one party to another, by coming in contact with the person, or any of person's belongings with which he/she may make a contact. The children make contact or touch the colors, which cause the harm of toxic lead, but the intention of the marketer is not to harm children but make big sales of the firm. Thus, we can look for a better option.

Disparagement is an act of insult to others. This practice is followed by a firm against it's rival in order to make lower sales of rival, by talking infamy about it, and so get a bigger share for itself. Notice that in the case provided, no rivalry is referred as such, so this option is incorrect.

Misrepresentation has three types (but for now we need not enter into that much of details). Misrepresentation in its most simple terms, is when one party claims on/states an untrue statement (like marketing as safe for use by children), which makes another party enter the contract (so people by those crayons for children) and the another party ends up bearing the loss (caused due to toxic lead here) due to incorrect statement. This seems to perfectly match the described case here.

Professional malpractice is simply an unintentional tort undertaken by a professional, when unknowingly they do not oblige with their duties, or provide service not going best with their work/profession. This is again a different sort of tort, irrelevant to our case here.

So, the best option here is (C) Misrepresentation.