Torts Midterm Flashcards
Battery
1) Acts intentionally
2) makes contact with plaintiff
3) contact is harmful and offensive
4) plaintiff is harmed
Fasle imprisonment
1) intent to confine
2) without lawful privilege and against consent
3) actual confinement within a limited area
4) for any appreciable time, however short
Assault
1) intent to bring about apprehension of a battery
2) reasonable apprehension of an imminent battery
Intentional inflection of Emotional Distress
1) Extreme and outrageous conduct
2) intent to cause or disregard of a substantial probability of causing, severe emotional distress.
3) A causal connection between the conduct and injury and
4) severe emotional distress
Self defense and defense of others
1) A person is justified in using physical force upon another person in order to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by that other person, and
2) He or she may use a degree of force which he or she reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose
Arrest and Detention
1) A merchant, or his agent or employee, with reasonable cause, may detain on the premises
2) in a reasonable manner and
3) for a reasonable time any person suspected of shoplifting.
Negligence
1) Duty
2) Breach of Duty
3) Cause in fact
4) Proximate cause/Scope of Liability
5) Damages
Intent
Poof of purpose (desire) or knowledge (substantial certainty)
Dual Intent
he individual intended to contact and intended to harm or offend by contact
Mental capabilities dual
Mentally deficient person can be found liable if its determined that the actor intended offensive or harmful consequences (W
Blameworthy
More consistent with the view that liability for battery should exist only when the actor is especially culpabl
Single Intent
The individual intended to contact
Mentally disabled
Single
Defendant attacked by mentally disabled patient, court ruled action doesn’t need intent that contact be harmful or offensive so long as he deliberately made the contact and so long as that contact satisfies legal test for what is harmful or offensive.
Single intent favors
plaintiff
Transferred intent
Tort to tort
Victim to victim
Transferred intent does not apply to IIED
Transferred intent
(Tort to tort)
Intent to assault and you batter them it transfer to the second tort
Extended liability principle
Defendant who commits an intentional tort, at least if it involves conscious wrongdoing, is liable for all damages caused, not merely those intended or foreseeable
(Battery) Indirect contact
Physical contact need not be with the physical body of the plaintiff, and it need not be direct physical contact
Contact is harmful or offensive
No need for physical harm
Actionable even if the plaintiff has no proven physical harm (Dobbs)
Consent
Actual consent
Apparent consent
Presumed consent
Actual consent
Act is a subjective willingness for the act to occur
Apparent consent
Conduct, including words, that are reasonable understood by another as a reflection of consent
Presumed consent
if social norms support or approve of a particular action, then the person performing the action might be considered justified in doing so even if the other person involved hasn’t explicitly agreed to it or shown clear consent.
if the actor believes, based on the circumstances, that the other person would likely have consented to the action if asked, then the actor has no reason to think that the conduct was non-consensual.
(Assault) Imminent
Without a significant delay
Apprehension not synonymous with fear
Plaintiff needs to only feel their mind taken hold of or anticipate an imminent battery
(Assault) Actions
Any act of such a nature as to excite an apprehension of a battery
Actual confinement within a limited area
Barries
Duress
Physical restraint is not necessary
Extreme and outrageous conduct
(a) Repeated or carried out over a period of time,
(b) an abuse of power by a person with some authority over the plaintiff, or
(c) directed at a person known to be especially vulnerable.
Actions not constituting E&O
Generally, insensitive or even rude behavior does not constitute extreme and outrageous conduct. Similarly, mere insults, indignities, threats, annoyances, petty oppressions, or other trivialities do not rise to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct.
Occasional malicious and abusive incidents should not be condoned, but must often be tolerated in our society.
Exception to presence: Terrorism
Court has previously held that one need not be present at the time of a terrorist attack upon a third person to recover for severe emotional injuries suffered as a result. This is because terrorism is sufficiently extreme and outrageous to demonstrate that it is intended to inflict severe emotional harm on even those not present at the site of the act.
(IIED) Presence
Only immediate family members who are present at the time of the conduct and who suffer severe distress, can recover.
2nd exception to presence:
Parents to recover for their emotional distress at the sexual abuse of their children (kidnapping also)
children who did not actually witness attacks on their mother were “present” if they could show “sensory and contemporaneous” awareness)
(IIED) extent
Severe distress can be proved without showing physical symptoms, courts insist that the distress must be severe or even debilitating (Argereow)
Proof that the distress caused significant impairment of day-to-day functioning
(Sindi)
(IIED) length
The length of time that plaintiff in determining whether that distress is sufficiently severe to be compensable. Id
(Self-Defense) Provocation
Being provoked is not enough to raise the self-defense privilege
(Self-Defense) Prior
Not engaged in an unlawful activity and is in any place where he or she has the right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand their ground.
(Self-Defense) Withdraw
Their initial aggressor, force is justified if they withdraw from the counter and effectively communicates their intent to do so, but the latter person continues or threatens the use of unlawful physical force
(Self-Defense) Deadly force
Is immune criminal prosecution and civil action from the use of such force, unless the force was determined to be unlawful
(Self-Defense) Sexual attack
When the defendant is threatened with sexual attack, or force likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, the defendant is privileged to respond with reasonable deadly force.
(Self-Defense) Home or stand your ground law
Can use deadly force without having to first measure if deadly force is being used against you
(Self-Defense) reasonable amount of force
The privilege to use force is extended to a reasonable amount of force, an excesses amount will bring liability to the defendant
When do defenses kick in
Defenses kick in after prima facie case
Defense of property
No privilege to use force intended or likely to cause death or serious harm against another whom the possessor sees about to enter his premises or meddle with his unless the intrusion threaten death or serious bodily harm
Reasonable appearance of consent
One will be permitted to act on the reasonable appearance of consent. The rule applies so long as the appearance of consent was not itself induced by misrepresentation or by a basic mistake of which the defendant was aware. Fraud vitiates consent
Private necessity
The defendant under a necessity may enter and remain without liability for a technical trespass that causes no physical harm. The landowner temporarily loses his purely possessive interest.
The landowner confronting a defendant who enters out of necessity loses his privilege to oust the trespasser
Public necessity
Person invoking the privilege do not have to pay for any actual damage caused by the act
The General Duty of Care
(Negligence)
An actor must exercise the care that would be exercised by a reasonable and prudent person under the same or similar circumstances to avoid or minimize risks of harm to others.
Ordinary care is the care a reasonably prudent person would use under the circumstances presented in this case. (Stewart)
Care never changes
The care required is always reasonable care. The standard never varies, but the care which it is reasonable to require of the actor varies with the danger involved in his act and is proportionate to it. The greater the danger, the greater the care which must be exercised (Stewart)