Intentional Torts Flashcards
What is Assault?
Assault is the voluntary, intentional causing of reasonable apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive contact with a person of another.
4 elements —
1) voluntary, intentional causing (desire or substantially certain)
2) reasonable apprehension
3) immediate harmful or offensive contract
4) with a person
Intent CAN be transferred.
What is Battery?
Battery is the voluntary and intentional act of harmful or offensive contact, directly or indirectly, with another person.
4 elements —
1) voluntary and intentional (desire or substantially certain)
2) causing of harmful of offensive contact (offensive contact includes something the plaintiff is holding or touching)
3) directly or indirectly causes contact
4) with a person.
Intent CAN be transferred.
Definition of Voluntary and Intentional
Voluntary means the plaintiff acted on their own volition. They were not coerced or forced.
Intentional is a desire for it to occur, or a substantial certainty that it will occur.
What is False Imprisonment?
False Imprisonment is the intentional bounding of a person in a defined space with no reasonable means of escape. The plaintiff must be aware of the bounding unless they are harmed.
False imprisonment is an intentional, unlawful act that confines or restrains the plaintiff in a bounded area with no reasonable means of escape. The defendant must desire or be substantially certain that his or her action will cause the confinement to a bounded area, and the plaintiff needs to be aware of the confinement or be actually harmed by it.
1) Intentional (desire or substantially certain) and unlawful act
2) Confines or restrains
3) Bounded area - no reasonable means of escape
4) Aware of the confinement or actually harmed - to the the plaintiff
Intent CAN be transferred.
What is IIED – Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress?
To establish this tort it must be shown that the defendant’s extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally causes the plaintiff to suffer severe distress.
3 elements –
1) extreme or outrageous behavior
2) Intentionally or recklessly
3) Causes to the victim severe mental distress - what a reasonable person could not ignore.
Intent for IIED CANNOT be transferred
What are the elements of Negligence?
DBCD are the main 4 - Duty, Breach, Cause, Damages (but explain both Actual and Proximate cases)
1) Duty - can be combined with Standard of care - There is a relationship between the parties, and that there exists a standard that is owed to one party.
2) Standard of Care - Objective, reasonable person standard.
3) Breach of Duty
4) Cause-in-fact - Actual Cause and Proximate Cause - a causal connection between the defendant’s conduct and the resulting injury.
4) Damages - must have caused actual loss or damage/harm.
Negligence – General Duty of Care – DBCD –
RULE – In order to establish a negligence claim, a plaintiff must establish that “defendant owed plaintiff a duty of care; defendant breached that duty; defendant’s breach was both the actual and proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury, and that the defendant caused actual loss or harm.” The defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law if the plaintiff fails to establish a prima facie case of negligence, or under no reasonable view of the evidence could a jury find in favor of the plaintiff.
Patricia (Plaintiff) can also assert a direct claim against Contractor for negligence. When one takes an affirmative act and fails to act as a reasonable person and a harm results they can be held liable as being negligent. In order to assert her claim she must show that there was a duty, that duty was breached, the harm caused was a result of the breach, damages were suffered and there are no defenses.
Define Negligence Per Se?
The statue used to prove Negligence Per Se must be –
1) Specific - detailed
2) Type of Harm – must be designed to prevent the type of harm suffered by the plaintiff. Found in the statute language or prior cases,
3) Protected Class - the person harmed must be within the group of people that the statute was designed to protect.
4) the violation must be the proximate cause of the injury.
Which intentional torts allow for transferred intent?
The five torts are battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to chattel, and trespass to land.
CANNOT Transfer – Conversion, IIED
What is the rule for trespass to chattel?
For a trespass to chattel to occur, there must be an ownership or possessory interest in personal property, an intentional invasion of that interest, and harm to the interest.
What is the rule for Res Ipsa Loquiter?
Res Ipsa Loquiter (the thing speaks for itself – circumstantial) - can be used when there is no direct evidence for breach of duty. It requires the defendant to prove 3 things:
a. Likely negligence - it’s the only way the harm could have happened.
b. Control – not when consecutive or sequential control
c. and it was not the plaintiff’s fault (ex. Left a clamp in during surgery) – also comparative fault can come into play.
What are the 3 ways to prove Breach of Duty?
The three ways to prove breach of duty in a negligence case are:
1) Negligence per se - violated a statute - shows minimum care needed
2) unreasonable actions - direct evidence of unreasonableness
3) Res Ipsa Loquiter - it had to be negligence
Respondeat Superior
An employer can be held vicariously liable for the acts of their employees when they act
negligently and a harm is caused or when their act is intentional but it must be in
furtherance of the employer’s purpose.
Duty - definition
When one takes an affirmative act they owe a duty of reasonable care to all foreseeable plaintiffs.
Cordozo (Majority view) - All possible victims within the zone of danger. – Andrews (Minority view) - is a duty to the world at large – everyone.
Breach of Duty - definition
When one owes a duty of care, the breach of such duty must be shown in order to show that there was negligence.
Negligence per se – When there is a statute in place, that statute can be used to set the duty and if that statute is not followed can be used to show that the duty was
breached. Must show 2 things 1) that the statue was there to address the type of harm that happened, and 2) that the plaintiff was in the class of people that the statue was designed to protect.
Unreasonable actions – When one is shown to have acted unreasonably then they have breached their duty. Unreasonableness can be shown when the burden of avoiding the harm causing activity paired with the social utility of that activity is less than the likelihood that the harm will occur and the gravity of the harm suffered.
Res Ipsa Loquiter
Causation - definition
In order for there to be an appropriate cause of action Patricia must show that Contractor’s breach of duty was both the actual cause of Stephen’s injuries and the proximate cause.
Actual cause – - In order to prove actual cause, plaintiff must prove that defendant was
the “but for” cause of defendant’s injuries
Proximate cause – In order to prove proximate cause, plaintiff must prove that plaintiff’s
injuries were a foreseeable result of defendant’s breach.
