Scienter
In
For example, if a man sells a car with brakes that do not work to his friend, but the seller does not know about the brake problem, the seller then has no scienter. If he sells the car and knew of the problem before he sold the car, he has scienter.
Scienter action in tort law
The scienter action is a category within
To be successful, the plaintiff needs to take action against the person in control of the animal. It is strict liability, requiring no more than proof of injury, the animal's having a problematic trait, and the knowledge of the person in control about the trait in the animal. Strict liability means that there is no need to argue fault in the form of wilful intent or negligence on the part of the animal or its controller. The only defence is if it can be proved the plaintiff voluntarily assumed the risk of injury by their actions, or if the plaintiff was the cause of the injury.
It is common to distinguish between harmless animals and wild animals, as no scienter is needed for wild animals. Animals are classed as wild or harmless on the basis of species or kind, not on the basis of being a tame individual. An elephant is considered wild regardless of its use. The scienter action is referred to in
General use
Scienter is generally used as a necessary condition of certain causes of civil action and as a standard for civil liability or criminal guilt. For instance, Section 1960 of Title 18 of the United States Code provides a scienter condition, requiring that the accused "knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns" a prohibited type of business.[1]
The concept of scienter is uniformly expressed in the text of the U.S. Code as the word know, appearing as "knowingly", "actual knowledge", "known", "knowledge fairly implied", etc. The word scienter is not used in the text of the U.S. Code, although it appears once in a section title.[2] This use reflects the development of American law speaking plainly instead of employing Latin phrases of legal English.
In contract law
Scienter is also an element of the
Scienter can also be used as a defense to a breach of contract lawsuit.
Element of claim of securities fraud
In the United States, to prevail in a securities fraud claim under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, a plaintiff must allege and prove that the defendant acted with scienter.
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