Tortfeasor

In common law systems, a tortfeasor is the party legally responsible for committing a tort. Torts are civil (not criminal) wrongs, and the law of torts allows an injured claimant to sue the tortfeasor for compensation, usually in the form of monetary damages, though injunctions and other remedies are possible. Common categories of tortious conduct include negligence, trespass, nuisance, defamation, and strict liability wrongs such as those arising under the rule in Rylands v Fletcher (1868).

Tortfeasors may be sole or joint. Joint tortfeasors are two or more parties whose combined conduct produces a single, indivisible injury—for example, two drivers whose simultaneous negligence causes one collision. Under doctrines of joint and several liability, a claimant may typically recover the full amount of damages from any one joint tortfeasor, leaving that defendant to seek contribution from the others. In England and Wales, contribution is governed by the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978; many U.S. states apply the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act or comparable statutes.

A concurrent tortfeasor acts independently of others but contributes to the same harm, while a successive tortfeasor inflicts further injury after an initial wrong (for example, a negligent doctor treating a car-accident victim). Liability can also be vicarious, as when an employer is held responsible for the torts of an employee acting in the course of employment.

The concept is central to civil litigation but also surfaces in international law discussions of state responsibility, transnational mass-tort claims, and corporate accountability litigation—for instance, suits brought in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute (28 U.S.C. § 1350), where foreign plaintiffs have sought to hold corporate defendants liable as tortfeasors for alleged complicity in human-rights abuses abroad, as litigated in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (2013) and Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe (2021).