Torts I Flashcards
(78 cards)
Intent - Defined
The Restatement (2d) of Torts §8A defines intent as an actor’s desire to cause consequences of his act, or his belief that the consequences are substantially certain to result from it.
Transferred-IntentDoctrine
The rule that if one person intends to harm a second person but instead unintentionally harms a third, the first person’s criminal or tortiousintenttoward the second applies to the third as well.
Battery - Defined
Black’s Law Dictionary defines battery as the use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact.
Battery - Harmful
The Restatement (2d) of Torts §15 defines harmful as any physical impairment of the condition of another’s body, or physical pain or illness
Battery - Offensive
The Restatement (2d) of Torts §19 defines offensive contact as a bodily contact that offends a reasonable sense of personal dignity.
Battery - Causation
The plaintiff has to show that the volitional act caused the harmful or offensive act. Because of the defendant’s act, that harmful or offensive contact occurred
Battery - Damages
Actual damages not required to recover
Assault - Defined
Blacks’ Law Dictionary defines assault as the threat or use of force on another that causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact.
Assault - Elements
An actor is subject to liability to another for assault if:
- Volitional act
- Intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact with the person of the other, or an apprehension of such imminent harmful or offensive contact
- The apprehension of contact thereby occurs
- Causation - the volitional act either directly or indirectly caused the apprehension of a harmful or offensive contact
- Damages - actual damages are not required
Battery - Elements
An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if:
- Volitional act
- Intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact
- The harmful or offensive contact occurred
- Causation - the volitional act either directly or indirectly caused the harmful or offensive contact
- Damages - actual damage occurred
Assault - Words Alone
Words alone do not make the actor liable for assault unless, together with the acts or circumstances, they put the other in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact with the person.
Assault - Ability to Inflict
In order to make an actor liable for assault, it is not necessary that he have or that he believe that he has the ability to inflict the harmful or offensive contact which his act apparently threatens
Battery - Exceptions
- Unconscious or instinctive acts are not volitional (blinking), but holding a arm out to brace a fall is volitional.
- The victim does not need to know that the harmful or offensive act occurred
- Words or context can be very important in determining what is offensive.
Assault - Apprehension
Apprehension results when the other believes that the act may result in imminent contact unless prevented from so resulting by self-defensive action, his flight, or an intervention of some outside force.
Assault - Imminent
Imminent contact is held to be a clear and present act. The threat of a future act at some other time and/or place does not make the actor liable for an assault.
Assault - Awareness
An actor is not liable for assault if the intended person does not become aware of the attempt before it is terminated.
Assault - Existence of Threat
It doesn’t matter if the threat never existed, as long as the victim had a reasonable fear that the threat existed, and the actor intended the apprehension.
False Imprisonment - Defined
Black’s Law Dictionary defines false imprisonment as a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent.
False Imprisonment - Elements
- A volitional act, or language used by the defendant
- Defendant intends to confine the victim, or is substantially certain that confinement will occur.
- The victim must be restricted to a limited area without knowledge of reasonable means of escape, and must be contemporaneously aware of the confinement, or otherwise harmed by it.
- Causation - Confinement must have been caused by the defendant’s intentional act or some force set in motion thereby.
- Damages - Nominal, compensatory, and punitive damages all are available. Injuries attempting to escape
False Imprisonment - Forms of Confinement
- Physical force exercised against the victim or a member of the victim’s family
- Threats of immediate harm to the victim, the victim’s property, or the victim’s family
- Actual or apparent physical barriers to escape
- Assertion of legal authority and victim’s submission thereto
False Imprisonment - Exceptions
- To make the actor liable for false imprisonment, the other’s confinement within the boundaries fixed by the actor must be complete.
- Actual or apparent physical barriers to escape
a. May be in a vehicle, a city, or a state, but not a country
(too large an area)
b. The confinement is complete even if there is a
reasonable means of escape, but the victim is
unaware of it. - The actor does not become liable for false imprisonment by intentionally preventing another from going in a particular direction in which he has a right or privilege to go (exclusion is not false imprisonment)
False Imprisonment - Defenses
Merchant Privilege - Acceptable to detain a person in a reasonable manner for a reasonable amount of time, if reasonable belief that person stole property
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress - Defined
Black’s Law Dictionary defines intentional infliction of emotional distress as intentionally or recklessly causing another person severe emotional distress through one’s extreme or outrageous acts.
IIED - Elements
- A volitional act by the defendant that is extreme and outrageous.
- The defendant’s conduct is intentional and reckless
- There must be a causal connection between the wrongful conduct and the emotional distress
- The emotional distress must be severe
- Damages - Actual damages are required. It must be proven that the emotional distress endured was severe.