Intentional Torts Involving Personal Injury Flashcards
What are the three general elements of a intentional tort involving personal injury?
You need a:
- Tortious conduct - voluntary act/failure to act
- Requisite mental state - purposeful (or reckless for IIED), or defendant (D) knows the consequence is substantially certain to result from the tortious conduct
- Causation - resulting harm legally (factually and proximately) caused by D’s conduct.
The 2nd Restatement elements include: act, intent and causation.
What are the elements of.a battery?
There are three elements to a battery:
- D intends to cause contact with plaintiff’s (P’s) person (or anything connected to P’s person)
–> transferred intent applies
–> Single-intent rule (majority rule) - D may be liable if D (i) intends to bring about the contact BUT D need not intend (ii) that the contact is harmful or offensive
–> Double-intent rule (minority rule) - D must (i) intend to bring about a contact AND (ii) intend that the contact be harmful or offensive - D’s conduct causes such contact
–> indirect contact counts
–> D’s conduct must be voluntary and affirmative - The contact causes bodily harm or is offensive to P
–> harmful: physical injury, illness, disease, impairment, death
–> offensive: reasonable-person standard (objective standard), or when D knows that the contact is highly offensive to P’s sense of personal dignity then you switch to this more subjective standard
What is an assault and what are its elements?
An assault happens when D intends to cause P to anticipate imminent, harmful and offensive contact, and D’s affirmative conduct causes P to anticipate such contact.
There are three elements:
- Anticipated contact - no actual contact required; P must be aware of D’s acts; anticipated contact must be harmful or offensive
–> R2d uses “apprehend” as the wording - Imminence - threats of future harm or threats made by D who is physically too far away do not usually satisfy this requirement
- Intent - subject to transferred intent
What is IIED and what are its elements?
IIED is the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
It happens when D, by extreme and outrageous conduct, intentionally OR recklessly causes P severe emotional distress.
Does transferred intent apply to IIED?
It does not apply to IIED when D intended to commit a different intentional tort (e.g. battery) against a different victim (instead governed by the “bystander” rule for third-party victims).
Transferred intent MAY apply to IIED if, instead of harming the intended person, D’s extreme and outrageous conduct harms another.
What is extreme and outrageous conduct by D under IIED mean?
It means that the actions are beyond human decency and/or outrageous.
Does IIED change for public figures or if it concerns them?
Public figures must show falsity and actual malice, private P cannot recover if issue was of public concern (public cared about this)
What happens if IIED causes emotional harm to a third party?
Can be applied to a third party if the actions of D distressed members of victim’s immediate family – with or without resulting in bodily injury – or other bystanders RESULTING in bodily injury.
What is the causation test in IIED?
It’s a factual-cause test
What is false imprisonment?
D intends to confine another within a limited area, D’s conduct causes P’s confinement or D fails to release P from confinement despite a duty to do so, and P is conscious of the confinement.
What does confinement mean under false imprisonment?
Limit area or when P is compelled to move in a highly restricted way (e.g. physical barriers or force, threats, invalid use of legal authority, duress, failure to provide means of escape).
How long does confinement need to be under false imprisonment?
Immaterial except as to amount of damages
How is intent defined under false imprisonment?
Purposeful act or knowing confinement is substantially certain to result.
How are damages calculated under false imprisonment?
Majority: actual damages unnecessary, P can recover nominal and possible punitive damages
Minority: actual damages necessary only if P was unaware of confinement
