Torts Bar Review [Intentional Torts] Flashcards
(10 cards)
Assault (Intentional Tort)
A defendant is liable for assault if:
1. They act intentionally,
2. To cause a plaintiff to experience a** reasonable apprehension,
3. Of immediate** (or imminent)
4. Harmful or offensive contact With the plaintiff’s person.
Battery (Intentional Tort)
Battery is a tort that happens when a person:
1. Intentionally
2. Causes a harmful or offensive
3. Contact
4. With the plaintiff’s person (body or anything attached to it)
Trespass to chattel:
🔹 DEFINITION
Trespass to chattels happens when someone intentionally interferes with your personal property (chattel) in a way that either:
1. Harms it, or
2. Significantly deprives you of using it for a period of time.
Conversion
Conversion is a tort where someone intentionally exercises control over your personal property in a way that seriously interferes with your ownership rights, to the point that the law treats it as if the defendant bought or stole it.
Trespass to Land.
Trespass to land happens when someone intentionally goes onto or stays on land that belongs to someone else without permission — even if they didn’t know it was wrong, and even if they didn’t cause any harm.
✅ Key Rule: The defendant must intend the physical act of entry — not necessarily intend to trespass or cause harm.
There are four elements to this: (1) Intentional Act (2) Unauthorized Invasion of the Land (3) Plaintiff Had Lawful Possession (4) Causation & Damages (Or Nominal Damages)
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.
🔸 1. Intent or Recklessness
* The defendant must have intended to cause emotional distress,
OR acted with reckless disregard for the likelihood of causing such distress.
✔ Intent = The defendant wanted the plaintiff to suffer emotionally.
✔ Recklessness = The defendant knew the conduct could cause emotional harm and acted anyway.
🟡 Transferred intent does NOT apply to IIED. This is not like battery or assault where intent to hurt someone else can count.
🔸 2. Extreme and Outrageous Conduct
* The conduct must go beyond all bounds of decency in a civilized society.
* It must be more than just insulting, rude, or offensive.
Courts look at the context:
* Is the defendant abusing power or authority (e.g., teacher, employer)?
* Was the conduct repeated over time?
* Was the plaintiff especially vulnerable (e.g., child, elderly, pregnant)?
* Did the defendant act in public, humiliate, or intentionally target sensitive topics?
❗ Rude behavior, name-calling, or one-time insults don’t meet this element.
🔸 3. Causation
* There must be a direct link between the conduct and the plaintiff’s emotional suffering.
* The harm cannot be caused by unrelated circumstances or pre-existing conditions.
🟡 Watch for bar questions that try to confuse you by including multiple sources of distress — always tie the distress to the defendant’s conduct.
🔸 4. Severe Emotional Distress
* The plaintiff must suffer genuine, serious distress — more than temporary annoyance or embarrassment.
* Evidence of severity includes:
o Panic attacks
o Insomnia
o Crying fits
o Therapy or hospitalization
o Debilitating anxiety or depression
❌ The plaintiff doesn’t need to show physical injury, but mere hurt feelings are not enough.
*Malice = Reckless
When it comes to IIED there must be two ppl involved.
False Imprisonment
🔒 FALSE IMPRISONMENT (Bar Exam Edition – in Simple Terms)
💡 What Is It?
False imprisonment happens when someone on purpose traps another person in a place, and that person can’t leave — and they either know they’re trapped or get hurt because of it.
It’s a type of intentional tort
🧱 4 Things You Need to Prove (Elements)
1. Intent
The person meant to trap you — OR they knew you would probably get trapped by what they did.
2. Act of Confinement
You were kept in a space, and couldn’t leave — either by:
o Physical barriers (locked door)
o Threats (like “If you leave, I’ll hurt you”)
o Misuse of legal power (like a fake arrest)
o Taking away your only way to move (like hiding your wheelchair)
3. No Reasonable Way to Leave
You had no safe or reasonable way out. A small, hidden window on the second floor doesn’t count.
4. Plaintiff Is Aware or Harmed
You either:
o Knew you were trapped while it was happening, OR
o Suffered harm (e.g., physical or emotional harm) because of being trapped.
Exception: Shopkeeper Priviliege:
🛍️ SHOPKEEPER’S PRIVILEGE (Bar Exam – in Simple Terms)
💡 What Is It?
The Shopkeeper’s Privilege is a legal defense to false imprisonment.
It allows a store owner or employee to briefly detain a customer if they reasonably believe the customer is shoplifting — without being sued for false imprisonment, as long as they follow the rules.
⚖️ Elements (Bar Exam Checklist)
A shopkeeper must meet all of these:
Reasonable suspicion of theft
The shopkeeper must have a good reason to think the person was stealing (e.g., saw them hide merchandise).
Detention is done in a reasonable manner
No excessive force, threats, or public humiliation.
Detention is for a reasonable time
Just long enough to investigate or wait for police. Holding someone for hours = ❌.
Purpose is to investigate or recover the merchandise
They must be trying to figure out if there was a theft — not punishing or humiliating.
📌 This is a Qualified Privilege
That means it only protects the store if they act reasonably in all 4 areas. If they go too far, the privilege is lost — and the customer can sue for false imprisonment.
🔍 Bar Exam Style Example (MBE)
Question:
Sarah is browsing a clothing store. A security guard sees her put a shirt in her purse but also sees her put it back. The guard locks her in a room for 45 minutes and yells at her to confess. She cries and is eventually let go. Can Sarah sue?
✅ Yes — The Shopkeeper’s Privilege doesn’t apply here because:
The guard saw her put the shirt back, so no reasonable suspicion
The detention lasted too long and was intimidating
The guard lost the protection by acting unreasonably
📝 MEE Style Example (Essay Hypo)
Fact Pattern:
A manager at a grocery store sees John walking out with something bulging in his coat. She stops him at the exit and asks politely if she can check. He refuses, and she asks him to step into a back room. She calls security. They hold John for 10 minutes, then discover it was just his wallet and apologize.
Can John sue for false imprisonment?
Answer (IRAC):
Issue: Whether the shopkeeper’s privilege protects the store from a false imprisonment claim.
Rule: A shopkeeper may briefly detain a person if there is reasonable suspicion of theft, and the detention is done in a reasonable manner, for a reasonable time, and for a proper purpose.
Application: The manager saw a suspicious bulge in John’s coat. She stopped him calmly and only held him for 10 minutes while checking. That’s reasonable suspicion, reasonable time, and proper purpose.
Conclusion: No, the shopkeeper’s privilege likely protects the store from liability.
🚫 What Makes Them Lose the Privilege?
Holding someone for too long
Using threats, insults, or violence
Having no good reason to suspect theft
Using the opportunity to punish or humiliate the person
📌 Summary in Plain English:
A store can briefly stop you if they reasonably think you’re stealing — but they can’t go overboard. If they’re rude, wrong, or hold you too long, you can still sue. The law protects reasonable shopkeepers — not ones who act like the police.
Negligent Trespass to land
🔍 What is “Negligent Trespass to Land”?
Negligent trespass to land happens when a person does not intend to enter another person’s property but carelessly causes something (like themselves or an object) to go onto or interfere with another person’s land, and that causes actual damage.
It is different from intentional trespass, where the person meant to enter the land — and no damage is required in intentional trespass.
✅ For negligent trespass:
* The person may not even know they entered someone else’s property.
* The key is: they should have been more careful and their carelessness led to the entry.
* The plaintiff must prove actual harm or damage to win the case.
⚖️ LEGAL ELEMENTS OF NEGLIGENT TRESPASS TO LAND
To establish negligent trespass, the plaintiff must prove all 5 elements:
1. Duty of Reasonable Care
The defendant had a duty to act as a reasonably careful person would in the same situation.
2. Breach of Duty (Negligence)
The defendant did something careless, failing to act as a reasonably careful person would.
3. Causation
The defendant’s carelessness directly caused a person or object to enter the plaintiff’s land.
o Both actual cause (“but for” the negligence, it wouldn’t have happened) and
o Proximate cause (the harm was a foreseeable result of the breach) are required.
4. Entry onto Land
Something physically entered the plaintiff’s land — whether a person, object, or substance.
o Examples: A car, a tree branch, a building overhang, runoff water, etc.
5. Actual Harm or Damage
The trespass must cause real, measurable harm to the plaintiff or their property.
o Emotional distress or annoyance is not enough by itself.
o Examples: Broken fences, crushed plants, destroyed lawn furniture, etc.
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED)
📘 What is NIED?
NIED allows a plaintiff to sue for emotional or mental suffering when the defendant’s negligence causes that distress — even if there is no physical injury.
But because emotional injuries are subjective, courts only allow NIED recovery in certain narrow situations to prevent abuse of the system.
⚖️ Full Legal Rule (Bar-Ready):
A defendant is liable for Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress if:
(1) The defendant was negligent;
(2) The plaintiff suffered serious emotional distress; and Physical
(3) The plaintiff falls into one of the recognized categories:
* Zone of Danger
* Bystander recovery
* Special relationship / special case
By standard rule is same.
Exception:
