Explain The Key Features Of Any Tort Claims Between Angela And Gerry: Tort Law 2 Essay, TCD, Ireland

FACTS

Read the following and be prepared to discuss the principal issues in claims arising from the facts presented.

Gerry is the chair of a national sporting organization, Green Giants. An allegation of sexual abuse of a sports participant by a member of the organization has emerged in the national media. Gerry has publicly stated that the organization will do all it can to investigate and to assist the alleged victim, who has instigated litigation against Green Giants. A whistle-blower in Green Giants leaked an internal email to Eirtelly, a national broadcaster. The email contains details of the organization’s litigation strategy – to fully back the accused member and dispute everything the accuser says and use every possible delaying tactic to pressure the accuser into either dropping the claim or settle the claim for less than it is worth. The email originated from a member of the board and was sent to the whistle-blower, with some commentary about the strategy; it does not refer to Gerry by name but does refer to ‘the chairman’ as leading the proposed strategy at recent meetings. There is also a comment that ‘GG publicly promotes a message of equality, but privately cheats on his wife and discards girlfriends like junk-food wrappers’. Gerry’s last name begins with a ‘G’ and he has had a number of affairs with women, who all say he treated them poorly. Gerry was not the chair of the Board meeting in question but did attend part of the meeting remotely. Virtually ran a news story on the matter and included extracts from the email and commentary upon it. Virtually published the email in full, bar the names of the sender and recipient, on the version of the story on its website.

In the wake of the story, a public protest was organized by Angela. The sporting organization recently ran a public campaign with its logo and the slogan – ‘We’re for Everyone’. Angela printed up t-shirts with the organization’s logo and the caption – ‘Not for Me’ – and gave them out to protestors. The logo and protest slogan was also used in a short online video, released on social media shortly before the protest. The protestors blocked the entrance to the sporting organization’s premises. Gerry had to wait for two hours at the end of the day for the numbers of protestors to thin out, so he could leave.  When Gerry emerged in his car to drive home at the end of the day, the few remaining protestors surrounded his car and started banging on the panels and windows. Gerry revved the engine vigorously, inching forward through the protestors; as he was close to getting clear, he accelerated and drove off. Most of the protestors jumped clear, but Angela, who had been directly in front of the vehicle as it accelerated, was too slow to get clear and was struck by the vehicle. She fell to the ground and scraped her face, elbow, and knee on the tarmac. The physical injuries healed up in a matter of weeks, but she has been left with some permanent scars in all three locations and suffers from mild PTSD, which is likely to improve in the next two to three years to the point of a total or near-total recovery. Because of the scars on her elbow and knee, she avoids wearing any clothes that leave these areas exposed (and she barely covered her elbows or knees prior to this incident).

QUESTION

1. Explain the key features of any tort claims between Angela and Gerry.

2. Explain the key features of any tort claims by GERRY/Green Giants/accused memberagainstEirtellya national broadcaster