Intentional Torts & Privileges Flashcards
Specific Intent
An actor intends the consequences of his conduct if his purpose is to bring about those consequences
General Intent
i. requires no showing of malice, intent to injure, or other bad motive but only a volitional act (moving of chair) performed with knowledge that there is substantial certainty that the result (harmful or offensive bodily contact) will occur.
1. Ex: Garret v. Daliey
Motive Distinguished
i. Motive is what impels a person to achieve a result, while intent refers to using a particular means to affect that result.
ii. Malice is not required for a finding of general intent, but it may permit the recovery of punitive damages.
Intent definition: Rest. Ch. 2 § 1
i. A person acts with the intent to produce a consequence if:
1. (a) the person acts with the purpose of producing that
consequence [Specific Intent]; or
2. (b) the person acts knowing that the consequence is substantially certain to result [General Intent]
Factors of Intent
i. Intent to make contact is all that is necessary to meet the intent element in a battery claim.
ii. Mistake as to the identity of the person or animal that was harmed does not negate intent.
iii. A person’s mental state does not exempt them from liability for intentional torts if they can form the requisite intent.
What situations do not negate intent?
i. Age
ii. Mentally disabled
iii. Insanity
1. Intoxication
iv. Privileges
1. Consent
2. Assumption of the Risk
a. Not applicable to intentional torts
3. Contributor negligence
a. Not applicable to intentional torts
Battery Elements
i. Intent to cause contact
ii. Contact is harmful or offensive
iii. Bodily harm or offense resulted
Battery
b. No actual injury is required, offense is sufficient.
c. Offensive contact is judged by a reasonable person standard unless defendant knew of plaintiff’s idiosyncratic beliefs or sensitivities
Boundaries of Battery
Fisher v. Carrousel Motor Hotel - plate snatched out of hand w./ racial epithet
A party is liable for damages for humiliation from an intentional offensive touching of anything connected with another individual without requiring actual physical contact with the body.
Rest. Ch. 2 §§ 13 – Battery Harmful Contact
i. An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if
1. (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
2. (b) a harmful contact with the person of the other directly or indirectly results.
Rest. Ch. 2 §18 – Battery Offensive Contact
i. (1) An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if
a. (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. (b) an offensive contact with the person of the other directly or indirectly results.
2. (2) An act which is not done with the intention stated in Subsection (1, a) does not make the actor liable to the other for a mere offensive contact with the other’s person although the act involves an unreasonable risk of inflicting it and, therefore, would be negligent or reckless if the risk threatened bodily harm.
Rest. Ch. 2 § 19 – What Constitutes Offensive Contact
i. A bodily contact is offensive if it offends a reasonable sense of personal dignity.
ii. It must be one which would offend the ordinary person and as such one not unduly sensitive as to his personal dignity. MUST be unwarranted by the social usages prevalent at the time and place at which it’s inflicted.
Assault Elements
i. Intent to either cause harmful or offensive contract or put someone in imminent apprehension of such contact.
ii. The actual contact is incomplete for whatever reason (some intervening cause)
iii. The defendant has the apparent ability to carry out the threat;
iv. Cause imminent apprehension in the mind of the plaintiff.
1. Imminent
a. Something is about to happen
b. Near or impending not nearly impossible; about to happen
2. Apprehension
a. Anxiety or fear that something bad will happen
b. Well founded sense of anxiety or awareness something bad will happen.
b. Assault is not an attempt at battery
As there is no imminent bodily contact.
The mere words problem
Words do not make the actor liable for assault unless together with other acts or circumstances they put the other in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact with his person.
Restatement Ch. 2 § 21 – Assault
a. (1) An actor is subject to liability to another | for assault if:
i. (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,
ii. (b) the other is thereby put in such imminent apprehension.
b. (2) An action which is not done with the intention stated in Subsection (1, a) does not make the actor liable to the other for an apprehension caused thereby although the act involves an unreasonable risk of causing it and, therefore, would be negligent or reckless if the risk threatened bodily harm.
False Imprisonment Method of Confinement
i. Physical restraint of person or property
1. Taking their clothes so they’re naked.
2. Locked in a room
ii. Submission to legal authority
1. Confinement once they tell you to stay
iii. Threats and Duress
1. Try to leave and I’ll kill you
iv. Implicit threats and effecting a confinement
1. Situation where a security guard invites a customer to the back office as they’re suspected of shoplifting if they make no attempt to leave due to fear
v. Undue influence affecting the plaintiff’s will
1. Lose ability and dependable on staff
2. Cult members
False Imprisonment Definition
False imprisonment is the direct restraint of the physical liberty of another without legal justification.
Consciousness (Parvi v. City of Kingston)
If you are consciously aware that you are being falsely imprisoned then you cannot assert that occurred.
Moral Suasion (Hardy v. LaBelle’s Distributing Co.)
In order to hold a party liable for false imprisonment, a party must prove he was unlawfully restrained against his will.
Hardy was not restrained against her will because she wanted to stay to clarify the situation, she did not ask to leave, and she was not otherwise compelled to stay.
Conviction (Enright v. Groves)
False imprisonment occurs when an individual is taken into custody by another who claims but does not have proper legal authority.
Case abt dog not being on leash, demanded her license, she refused so he put her in jail for the dog leash violation. Groves told her to show her license or go to jail. Groves thereafter arrested Enright and charged her with violation of the dog leash ordinance. There is no city ordinance that requires Enright to produce her license on demand.
Duty to Release (Whittaker v. Sanford)
To be liable for false imprisonment, a party must demonstrate that they have been subject to some manner of restraint, but not necessarily by actual physical force by another.
Stuck on the boat and they refused to let them off unless they rejoined the religious sect.
Elements of False imprisonment (Ch. 2 section 35 False Imprisonment - 2nd Restatement)
i. An actor is subject to liability to another for false imprisonment if:
1. He acts intending to confine the other or a third person within in boundaries fixed by the actor, and
2. His act directly or indirectly results in such a confinement of the other, and
3. The other is conscious of the confinement or is harmed by it.
ii. But note:
1. Voluntary submission negates imprisonment
2. Not considered bounded if aware of reasonable means of escape
3. Length of time is immaterial.
a. Unless privileged
4. Defense: Lawful arrests and convictions.
Restatement - 36 - What Constitutes Confinement
i. (1) To make the actor liable for false imprisonment, the other’s confinement within the boundaries fixed by the actor must be complete.
ii. (2) The confinement is complete although there is a reasonable means of escape, unless the other knows of it.
iii. (3) The actor does not become liable for false imprisonment by intentionally preventing another from going in a particular direction in which he has a right or privilege to go.
Restatement - 39 - Confinement by Physical Force
The confinement may be by overpowering physical force, or by submission to physical force.
Restatement - 40 - Confinement by Threats of Physical Force
The confinement may be by submission to a threat to apply physical force to the other’s person immediately upon the other’s going or attempting to go beyond the area in which the actor intends to confine him… .
Restatement - 41 - Confinement by Asserted Legal Authority
i. (1) The confinement may be by taking a person into custody under an asserted legal authority.
ii. (2) The custody is complete if the person against whom and in whose presence the authority is asserted believes it to be valid, or is in doubt as to its validity, and submits to it.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED) General Standards
a. A party can be liable for intentionally causing another party mental distress by seriously threatening his physical well-being, regardless of whether the threats technically constituted an assault under the circumstances. (See State Rubbish Coll. Ass’n v. Siliznoff)
- An inspector for the Association threatened to beat up Siliznoff, cut up his truck tires, and put him out of business if he did not make arrangements to pay Abramoff before the Association’s board meeting. Siliznoff attended the board meeting and protested that he owed nothing and told the Association he could not pay what he owed. The president of the Association told Siliznoff that the board controlled trash collection within the city. After two hours Siliznoff agreed to join the Association and pay for the Acme account, and signed notes indicating such. Siliznoff was so frightened from what occurred during the dispute that he became ill, vomited several times, and missed work for several days.
- Here, the Association intentionally frightened Siliznoff by threatening him and his business in an effort to acquire the Acme account. The Association was not permitted or privileged to make such threats against Siliznoff under these circumstances, and the Association is therefore liable for the harm.
IIED - Boundries
A party is not liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress for simple insults not intended to have real meaning or serious effect that subsequently causes another emotional distress. (Slocum v. Food Fair Stores)
* told you stink
* Food Fair is not liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress. A party is not liable for insults not intended to have real meaning or serious effect that subsequently causes another emotional distress. In this instance the comments by the employee were not so calculating that the employee knew with substantial certainty that his comments might cause severe emotional distress to Slocum. Thus, the decision is affirmed.
IIED - Severity
For a party to recover for intentional infliction of emotional distress a party must suffer a severely disabling emotional response to another’s conduct. (Harris v. Jones)
Case abt stuttering disability and bullying at work
IIED - Bystanders
A party is liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress when the act is done for the purpose of causing emotional distress or with knowledge to a substantial certainty that severe emotional distress will be produced by their conduct. (Taylor v. Vallelunga)
Taylor alleged that she was present and witnessed Vallelunga beat her father and thereby suffered severe emotional distress. Taylor does not claim that she suffered any physical disability or injury from the mental distress.
A party is liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress when one acts with the purpose of causing severe emotional distress or with knowledge to a substantial certainty that such distress will be produced. Vallelunga did not know that Taylor was present and saw him beating her father. There is no allegation that Vallelunga beat Taylor’s father for the purpose of causing Taylor to suffer severe emotional distress. Further, there is no allegation that Vallelunga knew with substantial certainty that Taylor would suffer severe emotional distress from seeing him beat up her father. SO NO IIED
Rest. Ch. 13 § 46 – Intentional (or reckless) infliction of emotional harm (3rd restatement)
i. Where such [extreme and outrageous] conduct is directed at a third person, the actor is subject to liability if he intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress:
1. To a member of such person’s immediate family who is present at the time, whether or not such distress results in bodily harm or
2. To any other person who is present at the time, if such distress results in bodily harm.
Rest. Ch. 2 § 2 – Recklessness
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.