Prof. Butler – Fall 2009
Torts Outline:
Intro:
ALI- American Law Institute:
Restatement(way to summarize complicated common law
Some have more impact then others
Courts are under no obligation to follow restatements and sometimes reject them entirely.
L Case(liability)- court decides the issue raised in favor of P and against D. But D is not always held liable for damages
NL Case(no liability) – Court says facts described do not give rise to liability.
Types of decisions:
Dismissal of complaint
SJ
Directed Verdicts
Bench trial – judge decides Facts and makes decision(no jury)
Law requires Fault àFault necessary to prove a tort
Intent –
purposely or
substantial certainty
transferred intent
Negligence – careless – trying to do intentional tort, but doesn’t happen correctly and hurt someone else.
Intent:
Transferred intent: Intent can be transferred between five torts (battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to chattel, and trespass to land)
– Does not work for conversion or transferred intent
– Can be person/tort to person/tort
o D wanted to assault A, but contacted B= intent to batter B
o Tort to Tort- D wanted to assault A, but contacted A= intent to batter A
o Person to person- D wants to batter A, but contacted B= intent to Batter B
EX:
Garratt V. Dailey – Kid pulls law chair from under woman as she is going to sit
– Trial court only looked to purpose for intent, not substantial certainty. D did not know w/ substantial Certainty that the P would fall to floor. P wins.
Knowledge is important to know with substantial certainty that the action would occur.
Subjective à Individual
Objective à same standard for everyone (what would a reasonable person thin was going to happen?)
Goals of Tort Law:
**(main)Compensation- injured people get compensated by liable person
**(main)Deterrence – we shovel our sidewalk b/c we don’t want to be sued
– It shapes societies behavior
Administering Justice- we don’t want people getting revenge(Sue don’t shoot)
Allocating Risks- who will pay when something goes wrong?
– We need to know in advance who is responsible.
Battery:
1. Intent to contact
a. Purpose- was it purposely done
b. Substantially certainà knew it would occur
– Don’t need to want to hurt someone, just need to show intent to touch(contact)
– Intent to make an unpermitted contact not supported by P’s apparent wishes or privilege
i. Ex: Rico Suave in elevatorà intends to grab girl, not supported by P
c. Transferred intent
d. Not an intent to harm or offend, but intend an unpermitted contact(contact not wanted by P)
Contact with P’s body
– Looking for unauthorizwed touchingà look to external factors(not what is in someon’s head)
i. Someone who may have a phobia of being touched is not reasonable therefore does nt matter, it is what a reasonable person would feel.
– Indirect(sets in force a motion) Extended personality- intimately attached
i. ex: black Nasa employee having plate snatched from his hand)
Contact is Harmful or offensive
– Harmful:
i. in view of reasonable member of society, physical alteration of body
– Offensive contact:
i. In a crowded world, a certain amount of personal contact is inevitable and must be accepted
ii. Test: what would be offensive to an ordinary perso
y considered part of a person’s body= touching the body
– Intimately connected to P’s body
Examples:
– You touch a stretcher I am in you are touching me
– You drive me off the road and in turn you hit my vehicle that is connected to me and my head hit the steering wheel of the car that is intimately connected to me.
False imprisonment
Intent to confine
Confinement in fixed boundaries
Types of confinement by unlawful means:
Physical barrier(locked door), physical force(grab someone and sit on them), false assertion of legal authority to confine(walmart confinement case), duress(if you leave I will do something to your children), duress to property(if you leave I wont give you your keys)
Against P’s will
Stay for threat to personal property, but not to resolve a dispute
Refusal to release- when you want to leave you canà when you want to, they will not let you go
Person does not have to attempt physical violence to leave
Appreciable amount of time- long enough to know you are stuck
P aware or harmed(jurisdictional Split- some say aware, some say harm)
If someone doesn’t know their liberty was gone, not false imprisoned
i. Pennying someone into a room with the door while sleeping, if they don’t know, then no false imprisonment
Threats of physical force
i. That are reasonably believed
Both express and implied(if you leave they might
