Torts
Tabb
Fall 2016
Intentional Torts
Prima Facie Case
Plaintiff must prove
Act by defendant (volitional movement)
Intent
Causation
Intent
Actor desires to cause the consequences of his act, or he believes that the consequences are substantially certain to result from it
Actual desire/purpose/knowledge (specific intent)
Know with substantial certainty that harmful consequences (general intent)
Different Views on Intent
Single Intent (intent to make contact) vs. Dual Intent (intent to harm)
May affect liability because dual intent requires added showing of intent to harm
No clear majority
Doctrine of Transferred Intent
The tort of battery or of assault and battery may be committed, although the person struck or hit by the defendant is not the one whom he intended to strike or hit
Minors and Incompetents Can Have Requisite Intent
Mental Disability
Where a legally insane person causes intentional damage to the person or property of another, he is liable for that damage in the same circumstances in which a normal person would be liable
Favoring Liability
Need to compensate; not about fault or blame
Between two innocent parties, loss falls on the responsible party
Increase diligence of caregiver
Line drawing difficulties of capacity
Fictitious claims
Minors
May be held liable for the tort of battery if she acted intentionally, with knowledge to a substantial certainty that her actions would cause a harmful or offensive contact to another person
Types of Intentional Torts
Battery
Actor intends to cause harmful or offensive contact upon another without consent or privilege and contact results
Intent Necessary for Battery
It is enough that the actor intends to produce such an effect upon some other person and that his act so intended is the legal cause of a harmful contact to the other
In order for a touching to be sufficiently offensive so as to constitute a battery it must be offensive to an ordinary person not unduly sensitive as to personal dignity based on the time, place, and circumstances under which the touching is done
Unpermitted and intentional contacts with anything so connected with the body as to be customarily regarded as part of the other’s person and therefore as partaking of its inviolability is actionable as an offensive contact with his person.
Assault
An assault is an intentional unlawful attempt to touch another in a harmful, offensive, rude, or angry manner, such that it creates a well-founded fear of such touching along with the ability of the offending party to actually effectuate the attempt
Intent Necessary for Assault
The actor intends to inflict a harmful or offensive bodily contact upon the other or a third person to put him in apprehension of such contact
Mental integrity is important to protect
Although, words alone generally do not constitute an assault
Apprehension
Must be reasonably afraid that the threatened action will happen
Timing (imminent)
Awareness
False Imprisonment
False imprisonment is the direct restraint of one person of the physical liberty of another without adequate legal justification.
There is no liability for intentionally confining another unless the person physically restrained knows of the confinement or is harmed by it
A false imprisonment can be accomplished by
Physical Barriers
Physical Force
Threat of Force
Failure to Provide Means of Escape
Duress, or
Asserted legal authority
Shoplifting Privilege Exception
Reasonable belief
Reasonable manner
Reasonable period of time
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
One who by extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another is subject to liability for such emotional distress, and if bodily harm to the other results from it, for such bodily harm
Do not have to show physical harm
Just good evidence
The existence of a special relationship, arising either from contract or from the inherent nature of a non-competitive public utility, supports a right and correlative duty of courtesy beyond that legally required in general mercantile or personal relationships
A party is liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress when the act is done for the purpose of causing emotional distress or with knowledge to a substantial certainty that severe emotional distress will be produced by their conduct
Trespass to Land
Every unauthorized intentional entry onto “close” of another without consent or privilege
Where enter land in possession of another or causes a person or thing to do so
Remain on land without consent
Failure to remove something from land that have a duty to remove
Protects exclusivity of the land
A trespass may be committed by the continued presence on the land of a structure, chattel or other thing which the actor or his predecessor in legal interest therein has placed there on
With the consent of the person then in possession of the land, if the actor fails to remove it after the consent has been effectively terminated, or
Pursuant to a privilege conferred on the actor, if the actor fails to remove it after the privilege has been terminated
Trespass to Chattels
One who without consensual or other privilege to do so, uses or otherwise intentionally inter meddles with a chattel which is in possession of another is liable for a trespass to such person if,
The chattel is impaired as to its condition, quality or value, or
The possessor is deprived of the use of the chattel for a substantial time, or
Bodily harm is thereby caused to the possessor or harm is caused to some person or thing in which the possessor has a legally protected interest
One is subject to liability for trespass to chattel if
He dis-possesses another of the chattel
The value of the chattel is impaired
The possessor is deprived of the use of the chattel, or
Harm is caused to the possessor of the chattel
Self-Defense
Existence of Privilege
Anyone is privileged to use reasonable force to defend himself against a threatened battery on the part of another
Retaliation
The privilege is one of defense against threatened battery, and not one of retaliation
When the battery is no longer threatened, the privilege terminates; then the original victim himself becomes liable for battery
Reasonable Belief
The privilege exists when the defendant reasonably believes that the force is necessary to protect himself against battery, even though there is in fact no necessity
Provocation
Insults, verbal threats, or opprobrious language do not justify the exercise of self-defense
Words can give context to surrounding circumstances
Amount of Force
The privilege is limited to the use of force that is or reasonably appears to be necessary for protection against a threatened battery
Differences in age, size, and relative strength are proper considerations
Retreat Before Use of Deadly Force
The restatement provides that the victim may use deadly force if there is the slightest doubt that the retreat can be safely made, and in determining whether his doubt is reasonable every allowance must be made for the predicament in which his assailant has placed him
Injury to Third Party
The privilege of self-defense is carried over, and the defendant is held not to be liable to the third party in the absence of some negligence toward him
Defense of Others
Nature of Privilege
A privilege similar to that of self-defense is recognized for the defense of third persons
Reasonable force under the circumstances
If the party has intervened to help the aggressor, he is liable
Defense of Property
A person, in protecting his property, may not use force calculated to cause death or serious bodily injury, except where there is also a threat to personal safety that justifies self defense
The value of human life and limb, not only to the individual concerned but also to society, so outweighs the interest of a possessor of land in excluding from it those whom he is not willing to admit thereto that a possessor of land has no privilege to use force intended or likely to cause death or serious harm against another whom the possessor sees about to enter his premises or meddle with his chattel, unless the intrusion threatens death or serious bodily harm to the occupiers or users of the premises
