Intentional Torts Flashcards
What are the elements of Battery?
- Harmful or offensive contact (reasonable person)
- To P’s person (includes anything connected)
- Intent (movement is not involuntary)
- Causation
Note: Damages not required
Note: contact = person or anything they’re wearing, holding, touching, or connected to.
What are the elements of Assault?
- An act by D creating a reasonable apprehension in P
- Of an IMMEDIATE harmful or offense contact to P’s person
- Intent (movement is not involuntary)
- Causation
Note: Damages not required
What roles do words play in proving assault?
Words alone are insufficient to create a reasonable apprehension; there must be some accompanying physical act.
However, words can negate a reasonable apprehension. Example: “If you weren’t my best friend, I’d punch you in the face right now.”
What are the elements of False Imprisonment
- Act or omission (or threat) by D that confines or restrains P
- To a bounded area
- Intent (to do the thing that confined P - not intent to confine)
- P knows of the restraint or is harmed by it in some way
- Causation
Note: Damages not required
Note: bounded area = no way of escape that is not dangerous, disgusting, humiliating, or hidden.
Can moral pressure and future threats meet the restraint requirement?
No.
For how much time must P be restrained?
There is no minimum amount of time, however, P must either know of the confinement or be harmed by it.
What is a bounded area?
An area in which freedom of movement is limited in all directions. There must be no REASONABLE means of escape KNOWN to P.
Reasonable = not dangerous, disgusting, humiliating, or hidden
What are the elements of IIED?
- An act by D amounting to extreme and outrageous conduct
- D acts with intent or recklessness
- P experiences severe emotional distress
(hypersensitivity irrelevant unless D knew about it and triggered it anyway) - Causation
What is extreme and outrageous conduct?
Conduct which transcends all bounds of decency. Mere insults are not outrageous.
Conduct that is not normally outrageous may become so through repetition if directed towards a certain type of P, such as children, the elderly, or pregnant women
May a bystander recover for IIED?
Yes, by proving either the elements of IIED or that she was present when the injury occurred, she is a close relative of the injured person, and D was aware of those facts.
What are the elements of Trespass to Land?
- Physical invasion
- That interferes with P’s exclusive possession of real property.
- Intent (movement constituting trespass was not involuntary - don’t need to know you’re on someone else’s property)
- Causation
Note: No damages required
What is included in the definition of real property?
The air above and subterranean space below for a reasonable distance
Who may maintain an action for trespass to land?
Anyone is actual or constructive possession of the land.
What are the elements of Trespass to Chattels
- Act by D that moderately interferes with P’s right of possession in a chattel (includes dispossession)
- Intent (to take the property - mistake as to ownership is not an excuse from liability)
- Causation
- Damages - includes damage to a possessory right
What are the elements of Conversion?
- An act by D that interferes with P’s right of possession in a chattel
- The interference is so serious that it warrants requiring D to pay the chattel’s full value
- Intent (to take/destroy the property - mistake as to ownership is not an excuse from liability)
- Causation
