Termination Of Torts

When a tort has been committed or has occurred, how may the parties resolve it, or bring it to an end? How may a person be released and set free from liability  for a tort? How may a tort become extinct?
A right or claim in tort may be brought to an end, terminated, extinguished, satisfied, or become extinct in several ways for instance by: Release, waver of right by election, Award of damages, injunctions, Accord and satisfaction, Limitation of true, Death, Abatement, and Resjudicat.
Release
A release is the giving up of a right or claim. It is the surrender of one’s right. A person to whom a tortuous wrong has been done may release a wrong-doer. Thus, a release may discharge a tort and release a wrong doer from liabilily. A release may be given on the spot at the moment or time of the commission of the tort; or at some time after it: or At any time before or after commencement of legal action . such release after commencement of action may be by way of amicable settlement; with or without the filing of settlement in court as consent judgement. The plantiff may otherwise discontinue the legal action and thus bring the matter to a close.
A release may be
1 Oral by words or mouth, such as “ I forgive you” and letting the wrongdoer go without paying for the damage that he caused, or 2 in writing; or
3 By deed, whether or not it is taken into consideration.
A person whose right has been breached may release the person who is responsible for a host of reasons, for instance, because the injury is minor and thus not worth the trouble of reparation, such as when one’s car is involved in a slight collision with another.
The person who is right may overlook the minor dent and allow the wrongdoer who was negligent to go. Thus is an instance where the legal maxim de minimize non cural lex applies, which means the law does not concern itself with trivialities. Legally when a release is made in full awareness of all the facts it is usually effective.
Waiver
A waiver is a voluntary abandonment of a legal right of which a person is aware either expressly or impliedly by a clear conduct leading to a reasonable interference of abandonment. A waiver is a voluntary abandonment of a right or remedy in a way that, the party in whose favour it was given up, may plead it as a defence and a bar to a claim, if there is an attempt to re-assert the right to remedy which was previously abandoned. Where a person who has been wronged has two inconsistent rights against a wrongdoer, he has to choose which of the inconsistent but not alternative rights he wants to pursue against the tort leasor. Where he elects to exercise one of the rights and by doing so waives the right to pursue the other inconsistent right. This is so for he cannot approbate and reprobate, he cannot approve and disapprove. Therefore, where a person who has been wronged, waives his right and decides not to pursue his right to remedy, he should not turn round later to enforce his legal right.
Our word should be our bound. You cannot waive your right and have it.

Chidi Enyie