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.