Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

tort = injury, most often accidental -- I am playing frisbee with a friend, but it veers offs, hits you in face, and breaks your nose

intentional tort = I see your nose. I don't like your nose. I throw purposely at your nose to in order to break it. Bullseye!

I'm not sure where Mr. Reed went to law school but his definition of "Tort" would flunk the Bar Exam. A tort is not necessarily a physical injury and it is most certainly not necessarily accidental. A tort is a "wrong" (from the Latin tortum meaning a wrong or injustice), and need not involve any injury at all. Trespass, conversion (the civil action for compensation for a theft) and nuisance are all torts that have nothing to do with personal injury. And his definition of intentional tort actually only describes one particular intentional tort -- battery.

If you want a decent layperson's rundown on torts, take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort

As for your specific question, you will not find what you are looking for. Tort law is hundreds of years older than any California legislative enactment, as is the distinction between intentional and unintentional torts (and you left out strict liability torts). The other reason you will not find a legislative enactment defining intentional and non-intentional torts is that it really requires no definition. If one of the elements of a particular tort is that the tortfeasor acted with intent to do the acts complained of, it is an intentional tort. If intent is not an element of the cause of action, then it is either an unintentional tort, such as negligence, or a strict liability tort, such as damage to your house due to blasting at a nearby construction site for which the contractor is liable regardless of whether they were negligent or not.

I agree with Mr. McCormick. Mr. Reed's response would have caused my tort's professor to kick him out of class during the first week of law school.