INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION ABOUT INTENTIONAL TORTS – battery, assault, false imprisonment, torts to property (trespass to chattels/conversion and trespass to land)
· Transferred intent doctrine- when the intention to harm one individual inadvertently causes a second person to be hurt instead. Under the law, the individual causing the harm will be seen as having “intended” the act by means of the “transferred intent” doctrine
· Insane person is liable for his torts; just have to meet the elements; just need to form the intent to invade the interests of another
· Employers are not normally vicariously liable for employee’s intentional torts, but are liable for other torts by employees committed w/in the scope of employment
· Children may be liable for torts they commit as long as the injured P can prove the required elements, including intent. (though 7 yrs old is often the cutoff before which children are presumed incapable of harmful intent)
Chapter 3 – Torts to Person or Property
Battery
o Battery – intentional offensive or harmful contact
o Rules and Guidelines for Battery:
§ offensive to a rsnbl sense of personal dignity
§ plaintiff’s injury need not be the expected result from the harm caused
§ 2 varieties of intent:
· “knowledge intent” – act must be done for the purpose of causing the contact or with knowledge on the part of the actor that such contact is substantially certain to be produced
· “purpose intent” – purpose to cause harmful or offensive contact
§ The harm caused does not have to be the harm intended. The P is taken as he is found.
Assault
o Assault – intentional act placing P in apprehension of imminent battery
o Rules & Guidelines for Assault:
§ Words alone don’t qualify
§ Need reasonable apprehension of imminent threat.
False Imprisonment
o another intentional confinement without lawful privilege and against his consent within a limited area for any appreciable time, however short.
o Rules and Guidelines for False Imprisonment:
§ Confinement – limited range of movement; P must have been aware of the confinement
§ Need some kind of physical force or threat of force, whether implicit or explicit
§ Ass
983 claims b/c of the fed Q involved (or state may hear the claim if P chooses)
Chapter 4 – Defenses to Intentional Torts – Privileges
Self-Defense
o Rule- can use rsnbl force to defend against harm or offensive bodily contact & agnst confinement
§ Privilege depends on apparent necessity of self-defense, even if not actual reality
§ Even if mistaken belief of being attacked, still okay to use rsnbl force to defend
o Rule: prpty owner or storekeeper may detain a person who he rsnbly believes has tortiously taken his prpty; only for rsnbl time to investigate facts; must have probable cause/rsnbl belief that suspect has stolen something
Rule: 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 unless the intrusion threatens death or serious bodily harm
