Intentional Torts Flashcards
(7 cards)
Prima facie case for battery
The prima facie case for battery consists of:
1. an act by the defendant that brings about harmful or offensive contact to the plaintiff’s person;
2. intent on the part of the defendant to bring about such harmful or offensive contact; and
3. causation.
Intent may be satisfied when the defendant’s purpose in acting is to bring about the consequences of his conduct or when the defendant knows with substantial certainty that the consequences will result.
Prima facie case for false imprisonment
To establish a prima facie case of false imprisonment, the plaintiff must show:
1. an act or omission to act by the defendant that confines or restrains the plaintiff to a bounded area;
2. intent on the part of the defendant to confine or restrain the plaintiff; and
3. causation.
Actionable confinement encompasses the failure to provide a means of escape when under a duty to do so. If the plaintiff has lawfully come under the defendant’s control and it would be impossible to leave without the defendant’s assistance (and it was understood between the parties that such assistance would be supplied), the intentional withholding of such assistance will constitute false imprisonment.
Transferred intent
Under the transferred intent doctrine, an intent to cause an assault (intent to cause apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact) will satisfy the intent requirement for batter when the other elements of batter are present.
Intentional infliction of emotional distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress requires the plaintiff to prove:
1. an act by defendant amounting to extreme and outrageous conduct;
2. intent to cause severe emotional distress or recklessness as to the effect of the defendant’s conduct;
3. causation; and
4. damages.
Outrageous conduct is extreme conduct that transcends all bounds of decency. Pecuniary harm is not required; all that is required is severe emotional distress.
Trespass to land
The tort of trespass to land requires the plaintiff to show:
1. an act of physical invasion of the plaintiff’s real property by the defendant,
2. intent by the defendant to bring about a physical invasion of the property; and
3. causation.
The intent required is the intent to enter on a particular piece of land, rather than intent to trespass. Also, it is not necessary that the defendant personally enter the land. It is sufficient if the defendant’s act or something set in motion thereby causes a physical invasion of the property.
Conversion
To establish a prima facie case of conversion, the plaintiff must prove the following elements:
1. an act by defendant interfering with plaintiff’s right of possession in the chattel,
2. intent to perform the act bringing about the interference with plaintiff’s right of possession,
3. causation, and
4. damages - an interference that is serious enough in nature or consequence to warrant that the defendant pay the full value of the chattel.
Even if the conduct is wholly innocent, liability may attach where the interference is serious in nature. Accordingly, accidentally causing damage to another’s chattel may constitute a conversion when the damage occurred while the defendant was using the chattel without permission. The plaintiff in a conversion case is entitled to damages for the fair market value of the chattel at the time and place of the conversion.
Intentional misrepresentation
To establish a prima facie case of intentional misrepresentation or fraud, the plaintiff must prove:
1. misrepresentation by defendant
2. scienter
3. intent to induce plaintiff’s reliance on the misrepresentation,
4. causation (actual reliance on the misrepresentation),
5. justifiable reliance on the misrepresentation, and
6. damages.
The element of scienter, which involves defendant’s state of mind, requires plaintiff to show that defendant made the statement knowing it to be false or made it with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity.
