Intentional Harms Flashcards
Intent
Person acts with the intent to produce a consequence if:
- the person acts with the purpose of producing that consequence; or
- the person acts knowing that the consequence is substantially certain to result
Single Intent
Intent to only cause contact with another person. The actor does not need to intend to cause harm or offense to another person.
Dual Intent
Intent to commit act and intent to harm
Transferred Intent
Intent is satisfied if the actor intends to cause the relevant tortious act to a third party, rather than the plaintiff
Prosser Rule
Intent may be transferred from one intentional tort to another or from one person to another
Intent also transfers between a ∆’s intended victim, and the unintended actual victim
Elements of Battery
- Actor intends to cause contact
- Actor’s conduct causes a contact
- The contact (i) causes bodily harm to the other or (ii) is offensive; and
- The other does not consent to the conduct of the actor
When is contact offensive or results in some harm?
Harmful or offensive contact with the body of another includes anything attached to their person, such as a cane, wheelchair, or held item
When is conduct offensive?
(i) If the contact would offend a reasonable sense of personal dignity, or
(ii) The actor knows that the contact specifically offends the other
Elements of Assault
(i) Actor intends to cause the other to anticipate an imminent, and harmful or offensive, contact with his or her person
(ii) Actor’s affirmative conduct causes the other person to anticipate a harmful contact
(iii) The other person does not consent to the conduct of the actor
Elements of Trespass to Land
If someone intentionally
- Enters land in possession of the other, or causes a thing or third person to do so without consent, or
- remains on the land, or
- Fails to remove from the land a thing which he is under a duty to remove
Privilege to Defend Land or Personal Property from Intrusion by Use of a Mechanical Device
- The use of the type of device is reasonably necessary to protect the property from intrusion
- The use of the particular device employed is reasonable under the circumstances
- The device is one customarily used for such a purpose or reasonable care is taken to make its use known to probable intruders; and
- The use of the device is not intended or likely to cause serious harm
Protection of Land and Property from Invasions by Other
Requests to leave must be made except in those circumstances where the property occupier or possessor thinks that the warning will be ineffective or create a personal risk of danger
Recapture of Chattels
Allows in limited circumstances the right to use reasonable levels of force to recoup the property when the party who took it refuses to return it, and the owner of the property know that a request for its return is likely to prove futile
Doctrine of Necessity
Applies with special force to the preservation of human life
Public Necessity (Complete Privilege)
i. Tortious actions were necessary to prevent greater damage to the public
ii. Serves the whole public; different from private to allow people to make decisions for public’s needs without worrying about personal liability
iii. The privilege is complete: the party does not need to pay for any damages caused
Private Necessity (Incomplete Privilege)
i. Protecting one’s property is only partially privileged and a party will need to pay for damages caused.
ii. For one person’s personal benefit
iii. An incomplete privilege: need to pay if damage the property of another while using during necessity
Elements of False Imprisonment
(i) Intent to confine within boundaries
(ii) There is actual confinement
(iii) Person confined is aware of their confinement or is harmed by it, and
(iv) The person did not consent
Risk to Innocent Third Parties
If, in exercising a privilege, an actor creates substantial risks of harm to innocent third parties, those risks might require the actor to compensate the third party, either because they demonstrate the actor is no longer acting within the scope of the privilege or because the actor is subject to negligence to the third party
Defense of Third Parties
A person is privileged to defend a third party under the same conditions and by the same means as those under by which he is privileged to defend himself if the actor reasonably believes the third party is entitled to use force in self-defense and that his intervention is necessary to protect that party
Offensive Battery
The intentional causing or inflicting of offensive contact to another person (spitting on someone, throwing a drink at someone, etc.)
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
One who by extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress
IIED; When Conduct is Directed to a Third Person
The actor is subject to liability if he intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress
(i) To a member of the person’s immediate family who is present at the time, whether or not the distress results in bodily harm, OR
(ii) To any other person who is present at the time, if the distress results in bodily harm
Extreme and Outrageous Conduct
So extreme and outrageous as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community
Severe Emotional Distress
Must be actually severe
Policy consideration: Floodgates
Defenses to Emotional and Dignitary Harms
Protection of person and property: whether the defendant’s actions are justified as necessary to protect defendant’s person and property, even when the plaintiff suffers serious harm
Consent: If an actor reasonably believes the plaintiff does consent, the actor is not liable, even if the plaintiff does not consent
- whether defendant’s conduct exceeds the scope of the consent given
Defenses to Intentional Torts
Consensual Defenses Mental Disability Self-Defense and Defense of Others Defense of Property Public and Private Necessity
Consensual Defenses
General rule: D is not liable if P consented to the conduct
Implied Consent-Emergency Rule: In a medical emergency when the patient is unable to give consent, consent is implied so life-saving treatment can be given.
Implied in Conduct (holding out arm for a shot)
Consent forms
Consent to illegal activity: 3 views
- cannot consent to an illegal activity
- can consent to an illegal activity
- can consent to an illegal activity unless a protected class
Consent in sports:
Players consent to contact made through a well or negligently played game
- Duty to not increase the inherent dangers/risks of the game
Informal Play
- Must be reckless or intentional to be actionable
- Game rules must be clear. If they are then consent.
Mental Disability
Usually not a defense to an intentional tort
Self-Defense and Defense of Others
Level of force used to defend self must match or be less than the level of force threatened with
Self-Defense/Defense of Property Elements
- Reasonable belief in
- Imminent harm (either to person or property interest)
- And reciprocal force is proportional
Shopkeeper’s Privilege (FI)
A shopkeeper’s reasonable detention of a shoplifter is not invalid and no FI.
For a merchant’s detainment to be justified, customer’s must:
i. be detained in a reasonable manner
ii. for a reasonable amount of time
iii. by a person authorized to make arrests on behalf of the merchant
iv. based on a reasonable suspicion by the merchant or person
