this became the basis for the four principles of negligence: (1) mr stevenson owed mrs donoghue a duty of care to provide safe drinks (2) he breached his duty of care (3) the harm would not have occurred but for his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause of her harm. another example of tort might be a neighbour making excessively loud noises with machinery on his property. under a nuisance claim the noise could be stopped. torts can also involve intentional acts, such as assault, battery or trespass. a better known tort is defamation, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable allegations that damage a politician's reputation. more infamous are economic torts, which form the basis of labour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes, when statute does not provide immunity.