What is a tort?

 A tort is a civil wrong

 Intentional Torts
o Battery
o Assault
o False Imprisonment
o Trespass
o Conversion
 Defenses
o Consent
o Privileges
 Defense of Person and Property
 Private Necessity
 Public Necessity

What is battery?

 Battery is the intentional act of causing a harmful or offensive bodily contact.

Elements of Battery

 Intentional Act
o Elements of Intent
 Purposeful
 Done with the goal/conscious object of accomplishing the result
 Knowledgeable
 With knowledge that to a substantial certainty a result will ensue
o What is an act?
 An act is the external representation of the actor's will
 Harmful or Offensive
o Harmful
 The physical impairment of one's body
o Offensive
 Damaging to a reasonable sense of personal dignity
 "Reasonable" is defined by the average person within the
jurisdiction of the case
 Bodily Contact
o Direct Contact
 The touching of another's body with your own
o Indirect Contact
 The touching of one's body or an extension thereof with your body or an
extension thereof
  Indirect contact can also occur when the actor intentionally sets a force in
motion that makes contact with the person of the other
 The actor does not need to intend the particular harm or offense to the victim; it is
sufficient that the actor intends to cause the contact

What is assault?

 Assault is (1) to act with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive bodily contact with the
person of another or a third person, or (2) to intentionally act in such a way that the other
is thereby put in reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily contact.

Elements of assault

 Intentional Act
o Purposeful - As battery
o Knowledgeable - As battery
o Act - As battery
 Harmful or Offensive Contact
o Harmful Contact - As battery
o Offensive Contact - As battery
 Reasonable Apprehension
o An honest and reasonable belief that an event will occur
o Mere words are not enough to satisfy the element of reasonable apprehension
 Imminent Contact
o Contact that will occur in the immediate future or without significant delay
 POINT: It is not enough that, say, person A threatens to shoot person B,
then leaves to get their gun. Person A must return with their gun in hand
for there to be an assault.

What is false imprisonment?

 False imprisonment is the intentional act of confining a person to a bounded area against
their will, while the person is aware of or harmed by it, while such confinement is not
otherwise privileged.

Elements of false imprisonment

 Intentional Act
o Purposeful - As battery
o Knowledgeable - As battery
o Act - As battery
 To confine a third person within boundaries fixed by the actor
 o Confinement - The act of imprisoning or restraining someone
o Boundary - A natural or artificial separation that delineates the confines of real
property
 The third person is conscious of the confinement or is harmed by it
o Harm - The physical impairment of one's body
 The third person does not consent to confinement
o Consent - Agreement, approval, or permission regarding some act or purpose
 The confinement was not otherwise privileged
o Privileged - Not subject to the usual rules or liabilities
 Shopkeeper's Privilege
 The actor cannot be found liable for false imprisonment if there is a reasonable means of
escape from the confinement

Trespass and its Elements

 One is subject to liability to another for trespass, irrespective of whether he thereby

causes harm to any protected interest of the other, if they:
o Intentionally
o enter land in the possession of the other, or cause a thing or a third person to do
so, or
o remain on the land, or
o fail to remove from the land a thing which they are under a duty to remove.

What is conversion?

 One who intentionally destroys a chattel or so materially alters its physical condition as to
change its identity or character is subject liability for conversion to another who is in
possession of the chattel or entitled to its immediate possession.

Elements of conversion

 Intentional Act
o Purposeful - As battery
o Knowledgeable - As battery
o Act - As battery
 Destroying or materially altering a chattel
o Materially Altering a chattel's physical condition as to change its identity or
character
 Another is in possession of the chattel or entitled to its immediate possession

In some jurisdictions, consent and privilege are considered affirmative elements rather than
defenses
  In these cases, the plaintiff must prove that they did not consent

Withdrawal of Consent

 If the withdrawal of consent is not communicated to the actor by the confined, it is not
possible to establish intent
 Even if the consent is withdrawn, the actor must only take reasonable measures to free
them

Objective Reasonable Person's Standard

 A phrase used to denote a hypothetical person in society who exercises average care,
skill, and judgement in conduct and who serves as a comparative standard for
determining liability.

Particulate Matter

 Matter that is, predominately or entirely, in the form of airborne particles. This includes
smoke, gas, dust, and in certain cases, liquid

Defenses against torts

 Consent
o
 Private Necessity

o The commission of a tort in order to preserve the safety of one's self, one's
property, or that of a third party. Example: Joe sees his friend, Guy, being
attacked by Johnathan. Joe then attacks Johnathan in order to defend Guy's safety.
Joe is not liable to Johnathan for the tort of battery.
 Public Necessity
o The commission of a tort in order to preserve the safety of the public or public
property. Example: A passerby, Joe, happens upon a burning house, but has no
phone with which to call the fire department. He then breaks into a neighboring
dwelling in order to use the phone to call 911. Joe is not liable for damages to the
owner of the house.

 A tortfeasor cannot claim Public Necessity as a defense from a tort if they created the
danger that required them to perform the tort in the first place. Example: If Joe, from the
previous example, starts the fire in question, he is still liable for the damages he caused.
Rules from Cases

 Brower v Ackerley
o An actor is subject to liability to another for assault if (a) he acts intending to
cause a harmful or offensive contact with the person of the other or a third person,
or an immanent apprehension of such a contact, and (b) the other is thereby put
into such imminent apprehension.
o Civil assault constitutes imminent harm, which is defined as "the immediate
physical threat which is important, rather than the manner in which it was
conveyed"
o Imminent contact is defined as "contact that will occur without a significant
delay"
 Cullison v Medley
o "Any act of such a nature as to excite an apprehension of a battery may constitute
a battery. It is an assault to shake a fist under another's nose, to aim or strike at
him with a weapon, or to hold it in a threatening position, to rise or advance to
strike another, to surround him with a display of force..."
o Assault constitutes "a touching of the mind, if not the body"
 Waters v Blackshear
o A negligent act cannot be intentional, and an intentional act cannot be negligent.
 Polmatier v Russ
o Intent is used to denote that the actor desires to cause consequences of is act, or
that he believes the consequences are substantially certain to result from it
 Nelson v Carroll
o It is enough that the defendant sets a force in motion which ultimately produces
the result
 Mohr v Williams (Ear Inspection Case)
o In the case of a doctor operating on an unconscious patient, and they find an issue
they did not see before, consent is only transferred if they discovered this new
issue in the process of examining the issue they already granted consent to have
operated upon.
 McQuiggan v. Boyscouts of America (Paperclip to the Face Case)
o In this case, a young boy was struck in the eye by a paperclip after he was
finished playing a game. However, because he did not withdraw consent prior to
leaving the game, his playmates had no knowledge that he wished to stop. Thus,
neither the boys who hit him with the paperclip, nor the Boyscouts of America are
liable for battery.
 Ploof v. Putnam (Island Dock Case)
o Necessity created by an act of God or other disaster resulting in an inability to
control movements justifies entries upon land and interferences with personal
property that would otherwise have been trespasses.