TORT OUTLINE- PROF GREENE
1) BATTERY
Restatement § 13
An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if:
(a) he acts intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact with the person of the other or a third person, or an imminent apprehension of such a contact, and
(b) a harmful contact with the person of the other directly or indirectly results.
a) Act by Defendant
– external manifestation of the actor’s will, volitional movement by the actor of some part of his body
i) Unconscious Act – movement of persons having seizer or asleep or under drugs not sufficient acts
ii) Reflex Actions- reflexive reaction in which the mind and will no share [Polmatier vs Russ]
iii) Acts by incompetents- i.e. insane or minor, still liable for their acts [Polmatier vs Russ]
b) Intent
– D act with intent to inflict a harmful or offensive touching on P or third person
i) Test- purpose or knowledge in substantial certainty
– acted with the purpose to cause the result or with knowledge that the result was substantially certain to occur [ Garratt v Dailey]
(a) Test is subjective- basic question is not what a reasonable person would have desired or believed, but what the particular defendant in fact desired or believed.
ii) Motives immaterial
iii) Transferred intent doctrine [ Hall vs McBryde]
Restatement of Torts § 16:
(a) If an act is done with the intention of inflicting upon another an offensive but not a harmful bodily contact,
or
Of putting another in apprehension of either a harmful or offensive bodily contact and such act causes a bodily contact to the other, the actor is liable to the other for a battery although the act was not done with the intention o
would cause a reasonable person to take offense, but at which the plaintiff take offense too is not sufficient
1) Exception- knowledge of hypersensitivity
– If defendant knows of the P’s hypersensitivity but proceeds anyway- does not
wish to be contact [ Cohen vs Smith- religious reason not be touch by male nurse; Leichtman vs WLW communication]
b) Plaintiff unaware of touching
– plaintiff need not have knowledge of the touching at the time of it. i.e. kissing someone when they’re asleep or plaintiff unconscious during an operation.
d) Causation- direct or indirect results (injury)
– HOOT must be caused by the D’s act or some force that the act sets in motion.
