Intentional Torts Flashcards
Intent
Acting with the purpose of causing a result or knowing the result is certain to occur
Intentional Torts
Battery, Assault, False Imprisonment, IIED, Trespass (to person and chattels)
Single Intent
Acting with the intent to only make the bodily contact (not that harm that results)
Dual Intent
Acting with the intent to both make the contact, and the harm that results
Transferred Intent
- satisfies intent for the tort if the actor’s intent is directed at causing harm to a third party, but ends up causing harm to the plaintiff
- transfers between a defendant’s intended victim, and the unintended actual victim
Prosser Rule
A defendant’s intent to commit any of the original trespass-based torts (assault, battery, false imprisonment, and trespass [to land or chattels]) automatically supplies the requisite intent for the other four
Transferred Intent Hypo
A defendant threw a stone attempting to hit someone and it broke a window. Guilty of trespass to property, even though the original intent was assault/battery
Battery (Trespass to Person)
Intentional, nonconsensual, harmful touching of the body of another with the intent to cause contact, regardless of intent (or lack of intent) to cause the harm
Elements of Battery
1) Intentional
2) Causing/Inflicting
3) Harmful or offensive contact [includes anything attached to their person - cane, wheelchair; offensive: if offend a reasonable personal of dignity/D knows P would be offended)
4) to another person
* contact does not need to be body to body (can be with anything)
Battery Policy
emerged to keep peace by substituting for private retribution - a wrongly touched person can pull out a summons instead of a sword
Assault
Intentional inflicting/causing of apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact to another person
Elements of Assault
1) intentionally
2) inflict/cause another person
3) imminent apprehension
- belief the act will result in harm, unless prevented by self-defense or outside force
4) of harmful or offensive contact
5) without their consent
* threat of contact must be immediate - future threats don’t count
Trespass to Land
- Intentional, unauthorized entry into/onto property
- Trespass requires intent to act, but not intent to harm; the harm is assumed in the act of going onto the property
Elements of Trespass to Land
1) Intentional
2) Entering
3) Another’s land
Other Trespass
- Overflight - right over above and below land
- Intangible Trespass - can only sue for physical damages caused by intangible trespass
- Policy - floodgates
Trespass to Chattels (Personal Property)
intentional interference with a plaintiff’s right of possession by either dispossessing, using, or meddling with the chattel
Liable for Trespass to Chattels if:
1) D steals the property, or
2) The chattel is damaged (condition, quality, value), or
3) The owner is denied use of the property for a substantial time, or
4) Harm is caused to a thing in which the possessor has a legally protected interest
Conversion
intentional exercise of taking control of a chattel which so seriously interferes with the right of another to control it, that the actor may justly be required to pay the other the full value of the chattel
Trespass vs. Conversion
- Extent and duration of the actor’s exercise of dominion or control + resulting interference (i.e., if a car has to be fixed for several months)
- The actor’s intent to assert a right in fact inconsistent with the other’s right of control
- the actor’s good faith (or lack thereof; good faith = more like trespass)
- the harm done to the chattel
- the inconvenience and expense caused to the other
Private Nuisance
- A thing or activity that substantially and unreasonably interferes with another individual’s use or enjoyment of his land
- Interference must be intentional, negligent, reckless, or the result of abnormally dangerous conduct to constitute nuisance
Public Nuisance
Unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public
EX: air pollution, pollution, public highways, use of public parks/property
Offensive Battery
Same as battery, but…
1) act of the ‘highest’ indignity
2) would offend a reasonable person, or
3) would offend the other person specifically
EX - spitting on someone, throwing a drink at someone, blowing smoke in someone’s face, knocking something out of someone’s hand, hat off head
False Imprisonment
Intentional confining of another person within an area or space against their will
Elements of False Imprisonment
1) Intend to confine another, and
2) They cause the other to be confined, and
3) The other is aware of the confinement or is harmed by it, and
4) The other did not consent
Defense for False Imprisonment
Consent
Defense of property/self/others
*False imprisonment cannot exist when there is a safe alternative exit
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
- Intentionally or recklessly causing by extreme or outrageous conduct severe emotional distress in another
- Policy: compensation/caretaking vs. floodgates
IIED Elements
1) Intentionally or recklessly
2) Causing
3) By extreme or outrageous conduct
4) Severe emotional distress
5) To another
IIED & Third Parties
1) Intentionally or recklessly
2) Causes severe emotional distress to a member of a person’s immediate family while they are present at the time (if results in bodily harm or knowledge of the act), or
3) Anyone present at the time if bodily harm results
Defenses to Intentional Torts
- Consent
- Mental Disabilities
- Self-Defense & Defense of Others
- Defense of Property
- Necessity (Private/Public)
Consent (Defense)
- D is not liable if P consented to the conduct
- Affirmative: D says they did make contact, but P consented (conscious enough to give consent; i.e., verbal or contractual)
Implied: Intent conferred from conduct or exigent circumstances
Mental Disabilities (Defense)
- Insanity/mental disability is usually not a defense to an intentional tort
- Policy - deterrence/incentives, compensation/caretaking, fraud concerns
Emergency Rule (Defense)
During cases of emergency where a patient is unconscious and it is necessary to operate before consent can be obtained, it can be assumed the patient gives consent for life-saving treatment
Self-Defense
- Valid defense
- level of forced used to defend self must match or be less than the level of force threatened with (proportionality)
- Mistake? Was it reasonable? Did you need to use force?
Defense of Property
- No deadly force to protect property
- must ask someone to leave before using force, unless they are actively destroying your property
Necessity (Defense)
- The right to take control of/use the property of another if needed during an emergency
- If you claim necessity and they push you away, then now they have trespassed against you
Private Necessity (Defense)
- For own personal benefit
- Incomplete privilege: need to pay if damage the property of another while using during necessity
- Policy: unjust enrichment, cost-benefit analysis
Public Necessity (Defense)
- Serves the whole public; allow people to make decisions for public’s needs without worrying about personal liability
- Complete privilege: don’t need to pay for damage to property
Thin-Skull or Eggshell Rule
- D is liable for all damages caused by his action, not just those foreseeable to him
- Policy: compensation/caretaking
- My actions cause more damage than expected, still responsible for full consequences
