Torts

Question 1

Define transferred intent.

Answer 1

If the defendant acts with the necessary intent to inflict certain intentional torts, but causes injury to a different victim, then the defendant’s intent is transferred to the actual victim. Transferred intent only applies to battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land, and trespass to chattels.

Question 2

Define battery.

Answer 2

Battery is an intentional act that causes a harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff or with something closely connected thereto.

Question 3

Describe the intent required for the defendant to commit battery.

Answer 3

The defendant must either:

• desire to cause an immediate harmful or offensive contact; OR
• know such contact is substantially certain to occur.

Question 4

Define assault.

Answer 4

Assault in an intentional act that causes the plaintiff to experience reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive contact.

Question 5

Define false imprisonment.

Answer 5

False imprisonment is an intentional act that causes the plaintiff to be confined or restrained to a bounded area against the plaintiff’s will, and the plaintiff knows of the confinement or is injured thereby.

Question 6

Explain the confinement requirement for false imprisonment.

Answer 6

The plaintiff may be confined by:
- the use of physical barriers (e.g. locking the plaintiff in a room);
- failing to release the plaintiff where the defendant has a legal duty to do so; OR
- the invalid assertion of legal authority.
NOTE: No duration of confinement is required - a very brief confinement will suffice, though the duration of the confinement may affect the amount of damages.
NOTE: If the plaintiff knows (actual knowledge) of a reasonable means of escape, there is no confinement.

Question 7

Define intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Answer 7

Intentional infliction of emotional distress is an intentional or reckless act amounting to extreme and outrageous conduct that causes the plaintiff severe mental distress.

Question 8

Define trespass to land.

Answer 8

Trespass to land is an intentional act that causes a physical invasion of the plaintiff’s land.
NOTE: The defendant need only act with intent to cause a physical invasion of a particular piece of land, not the specific intent to invade the plaintiff’s land.

Question 9

Discuss the plaintiff’s level of distress required for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Answer 9

The plaintiff must prove that the distress suffered was severe-more than the level of mental distress a reasonable person could be expected to endure. The emotional distress must be substantial and long-lasting, and not trivial or transitory.

Question 10

For trespass to land, how is the element of physical invasion satisfied?

Answer 10

The element of physical invasion is satisfied if the defendant:

• Enters or causes a third person or object to enter onto the plaintiff’s land.
• Enters onto the plaintiff’s land lawfully, but then remains when under a legal duty to leave; OR
• Fails to remove an object from the plaintiff’s land when under a legal duty to do so.

Question 11

Define trespass to chattels.

Answer 11

Trespass to chattels is an intentional act by the defendant that interferes with the plaintiff’s chattel, causing harm.
Chattel means tangible personal property or intangible property that has a physical representation, such as a promissory note or documents in which title to a chattel are merged, such as warehouse receipts or bills of lading.

Question 12

Explain the element of actual damages for trespass to chattels.

Answer 12

Unlike other intentional torts, proof of actual damages is an element of the cause of action for trespass to chattels. Actual damages are defined as the value of loss of use (e.g. rental value) of the chattel during a dispossession or the cost to remedy intermeddling.

Question 13

Define conversion.

Answer 13

Conversion is an intentional act by the defendant that causes the destruction of or a serious and substantial interference with the plaintiff’s chattel.

Question 14

List the seven defenses and privileges to intentional torts.

Answer 14

• Privilege
• Others (defense of others)
• Property
• Consent
• Authority
• Necessity
• Self-defense
  POPCANS

Question 15

Describe the defense of consent to an intentional tort.

Answer 15

• Even though the defendant has otherwise committed an intentional tort, he is not liable if the plaintiff consented to the act that constituted the tort.
• In order to invoke this defense, the consent must be effective, and the defendant must not exceed the scope of the consent.
• The plaintiff can manifest consent expressly, by implication, or as a matter of law.
• Usually a defense to battery or assault.

Question 16

Explain self-defense.

Answer 16

A defendant charged with an intentional tort may defend on the grounds that he used reasonable force to prevent the plaintiff from engaging in an imminent and unprivileged attack.
A defendant acting in self-defense may use only the degree of force reasonably necessary to avoid the harm threatened by the plaintiff.
Deadly force cannot be used to defend against conduct that did not threaten death or serious bodily harm.

Question 17

Under what circumstances will self-defense be ineffective as a defense?

Answer 17

A defendant cannot successfully assert self-defense when the purported threat represented by the plaintiff’s conduct:

• is not about to happen;
• has been averted; OR
• has ended.

Question 18

The defendant is entitled to defend another person from an attack by the plaintiff to the same extent that:

Answer 18

the third person would be lawfully entitled to defend themselves from the plaintiff.

Question 19

Define the standard for defense of property.

Answer 19

The defendant is permitted to use reasonable force to prevent the plaintiff from committing a tort against the defendant’s property.
The amount of force used by the defendant must be no greater than the amount necessary to prevent the threatened harm.

Question 20

Define the defense of necessity.

Answer 20

The defendant is permitted to injure the plaintiff’s property if it is reasonably necessary to avoid a substantially greater harm to the public, to himself, or to his property.
This is an objective standard. The defendant may successfully assert this defense if a reasonable person in the same circumstances would believe it necessary to injure the plaintiff’s property.

Question 21

What is the shopkeeper’s privilege?

Answer 21

The defendant/shopkeeper is not liable for false imprisonment or a related tort if:

• he has a reasonable suspicion that the plaintiff has stolen goods;
• he uses reasonable force to detain the plaintiff; AND
• he detains the plaintiff for a reasonable period and in a reasonable manner, on the premises or in the immediate vicinity.

Question 22

A nurse was assisting in an operation. The surgeon became frustrated with the operation because the procedure was not going well and he believed the nurse was making mistakes. He became so exasperated that he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down so that her face was a few inches away from the surgical opening and sarcastically asked her if she could see where he was working, and then screamed that he was working in an open wound. The surgeon testified he did not intend to injure or harm the nurse. The nurse filed an action for battery.
Will the surgeon prevail?
a. Yes, because battery requires an intent to cause harmful contact.
b. Yes, because the surgeon acted out of necessity.
c. No, because the surgeon did intend to cause harmful contact.
d. No, because the contact was offensive.

Answer 22

d. No, because the contact was offensive.

Battery is an intentional act that causes either harmful or offensive contact with the person of the plaintiff or something closely associated with the person’s body, such as a hat the person may be wearing. The element of intent is satisfied if the defendants intend to cause a harmful contact or an offensive contact. If a defendant knows that a result is substantially certain to occur, the element of intent is satisfied. The fact the surgeon did not intend to harm the nurse will not preclude the jury from finding he intended an offensive contact. The facts demonstrate that the contact was offensive.