Intentional Torts

Question 1

Third Restatement of Torts, Intent

Answer 1

A person acts with the intent to produce a consequence if:
(a) the person acts with the purpose of producing that consequence; or
(b) the person acts knowing that the consequence is substantially certain to result.

Question 2

Second Restatement of Torts, Battery

Answer 2

An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if
(a) he acts intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact with the person of the other or a third person, or an imminent apprehension of such a contact, and
(b) a harmful or offensive contact with the person of the other directly or indirectly results.

Question 3

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, Battery: General Definition

Answer 3

An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if:
(a) the actor intends to cause a contact with the person of the other …;
(b) the actor’s affirmative conduct causes such a contact; and
(c) the contact (i) causes bodily harm to the other or (ii) is offensive …

Question 4

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, Battery: Required Intent

Answer 4

The intent required for battery is the intent to cause a contact with the person of another. The actor need not intend to cause harm or offense to the other.

Question 5

Single Intent (Battery)

Answer 5

The actor must intend to cause a physical contact with the person of the plaintiff or intend to harm

Question 6

Dual intent (Battery)

Answer 6

The actor must intend to cause a physical contact with the person of the plaintiff, BUT ALSO must intend, by that contact, (either to offend the other) or to cause the other bodily harm

Question 7

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, Transferred Intent (Battery)

Answer 7

(a) For purposes of liability for battery, … assault, or false imprisonment, the intent requirement for the tort is satisfied if the actor intends to cause the relevant tortious consequence to a third party, rather than to the plaintiff, but the actor’s conduct causes that consequence to the plaintiff.
(b) For purposes of liability for battery, the intent requirement for the tort is satisfied if the actor either intends to cause a contact with the person of another or intends to cause the other to anticipate an imminent, and harmful or offensive, contact with his or her person.
(c) For purposes of liability for assault, the intent requirement for the tort is satisfied if the actor either intends to cause a contact with the person of another or intends to cause the other to anticipate an imminent, and harmful or offensive, contact with his or her person.
(d) The liability of an actor under rules (a), (b), and (c) is subject to the ordinary tort-law requirement that the actor’s conduct must be a factual cause of the relevant tortious consequence within the scope of the actor’s liability.

Question 8

Transferred Intent (Person-to-Person)

Answer 8

Intended victim to actual victim; transferring intent to another person; “I intend to batter you and actually batter you, but the person ducks and hits someone else.”

Question 9

Transferred Intent (Tort-to-Tort)

Answer 9

Intent to commit one tort and end up committing another; Transfer from battery to assault or assault to battery – put them in apprehension of imminent contact; Tort of battery and assault, intend to punch the person but pull back, but cannot control muscles so then actually hit the person; Intend to hit but short arms so cannot reach the person’s face, intent to commit battery transfers over to assault

Question 10

Second Restatement of Torts, What Constitutes Offensive Contact (Battery)

Answer 10

A bodily contact is offensive if it offends a reasonable sense of personal dignity.

Comment a–In order that a contact be offensive to a reasonable sense of personal dignity, it must be one which would offend the ordinary person and as such one not unduly sensitive as to his personal dignity. It must, therefore, be a contact which is unwarranted by the social usages prevalent at the time and place at which it is inflicted.

Question 11

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, Battery: Definition of Offensive Contact

Answer 11

A contact is offensive … if:
(a) the contact is offensive to a reasonable sense of personal dignity; or
(b) although the contact is not offensive to a reasonable sense of personal dignity, the actor knows that the contact is highly offensive to the other’s sense of personal dignity, and the actor contacts the other with the primary purpose that the contact will be highly offensive.
Liability under Subsection (b) shall not be imposed if the court determines that imposing liability would violate public policy.

Question 12

Second Restatement of Torts, Liability for Intentional Intrusions on Land

Answer 12

One is subject to liability to another for trespass, irrespective of whether he thereby causes harm to any legally protected interest of the other, if he intentionally
(a) enters land in the possession of the other, or causes a thing or a third person to do so, or
(b) remains on the land, or
(c) fails to remove from the land a thing which he is under a duty to remove.

Question 13

Second Restatement of Torts, Ways of Committing Trespass to Chattel

Answer 13

A trespass to a chattel may be committed by intentionally
(a) dispossessing another of the chattel, or
(b) using or intermeddling with a chattel in the possession of another.

Question 14

Second Restatement of Torts, Liability for Dispossession (Chattel)

Answer 14

One who dispossesses another of a chattel is subject to liability in trespass for the damage done. If the dispossession seriously interferes with the right of the other to control the chattel, the actor may also be subject to liability for conversion.

Question 15

Second Restatement of Torts, What Constitutes Conversion

Answer 15

(1) Conversion is an intentional exercise of dominion or control over 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.
(2) In determining the seriousness of the interference and the justice of requiring the actor to pay the full value, the following factors are important:
(a) the extent and duration of the actor’s exercise of dominion or control;
(b) the actor’s intent to assert a right in fact inconsistent with the other’s right of control;
(c) the actor’s good faith;
(d) the extent and duration of the resulting interference with the other’s right of control;
(e) the harm done to the chattel;
(f) the inconvenience and expense caused to the other.

Question 16

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, Assault

Answer 16

An actor is subject to liability to another for assault if:
(a) … the actor intends to cause the other to anticipate an imminent, and harmful or offensive, contact with his or her person, … and
(b) the actor’s affirmative conduct causes the other to anticipate an imminent, and harmful or offensive, contact with his or her person.

Question 17

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, False Imprisonment: General Definition

Answer 17

An actor is subject to liability to another for false imprisonment if:
(a) the actor intends to confine the other within a limited area …;
(b) the actor’s affirmative conduct causes a confinement of the other … or the actor fails to release the other from a confinement despite owing a duty to do so; and
(c) the other is aware that he or she is confined or the other suffers bodily harm as a result of the confinement.

Question 18

Draft Third Restatement of Torts, False Imprisonment: What Constitutes a Confinement

Answer 18

An actor confines another … if:
(a) the actor employs physical barriers that preclude, or appear to preclude, the other from exiting the area of confinement, and the other is unaware of a readily available and safe means of exit;
(b) the actor employs physical force or restraint, or the actor makes an express or implied threat of immediate physical force or restraint, and the other submits to the force, restraint, or threat rather than exiting the area of confinement;
(c) the actor causes duress, other than by a threat of force or of restraint, and the other submits to the duress rather than exiting; or
(d) the other submits to the actor’s assertion of legal authority ….

Question 19

Third Restatement of Torts, Intentional (or Reckless) Infliction of Emotional Harm (IIED)

Answer 19

An actor who by extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional harm to another is subject to liability for that emotional harm and, if the emotional harm causes bodily harm, also for the bodily harm.

Question 20

Third Restatement of Torts, Recklessness

Answer 20

A person acts recklessly in engaging in conduct if:
(a) the person knows of the risk of harm created by the conduct or knows facts that make the risk obvious to another in the person’s situation, and
(b) the precaution that would eliminate or reduce the risk involves burdens that are so slight relative to the magnitude of the risk as to render the person’s failure to adopt the precaution a demonstration of the person’s indifference to the risk.