Torts Outline
TORTS – INTENTIONAL TORTS
PRIMA FACIE
Battery is the (1) intentional infliction of (2) a harmful or offensive (3) contact. Offensive includes acts damaging to a “reasonable sense of dignity.” No knowledge of contact is required. (Rationale: protection of personal integrity. Freedom from intentional and unpermitted contact. Offensive harm included b/c of mental injuries).
▪ To have a claim of battery, there must be a claim of fault, negligence, or wrongdoing on the part of the party doing the touching. VanCamp v. McAfoos (a little boy rides his bike into a woman)
▪ Must act intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact and when a harmful or offensive contact results. Snyder v. Turk (the surgeon yells at a nurse and pulls her face near a surgical opening) and Cohen v. Smith (against the pregnant woman’s religion to be touched or seen naked by the male nurse)(supports tort objective of protecting personal integrity)
▪ Intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with another (or an imminent apprehension of such contact) and harmful or offensive contact with a third person directly or indirectly resuls. Hall v. McBryde (transferred intent rule: intent to cause battery or assault on one person can transfer if battery or assault on a 3rd person results) (defendant fired back at youths shooting towards his house and he hit his next door neighbor during the exchange)
▪ Actor must subjectively intend offensive or harmful consequences; he must appreciate the offensiveness of his conduct. White v. Muniz (insanity only makes it more difficult to prove the intent requirement, but is not a defense) (an Alzheimer’s patient strikes her caregiver in the face)
Assault is an (1) intentional act that creates (2) apprehension of an (3) imminent harmful or offensive contact. Apprehension requires more than words alone. Apprehension requires the D to be aware of the threatened contact. (Rationale: apprehension is a form of
PRIMA FACIE
Battery is the (1) intentional infliction of (2) a harmful or offensive (3) contact. Offensive includes acts damaging to a “reasonable sense of dignity.” No knowledge of contact is required. (Rationale: protection of personal integrity. Freedom from intentional and unpermitted contact. Offensive harm included b/c of mental injuries).
▪ To have a claim of battery, there must be a claim of fault, negligence, or wrongdoing on the part of the party doing the touching. VanCamp v. McAfoos (a little boy rides his bike into a woman)
▪ Must act intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact and when a harmful or offensive contact results. Snyder v. Turk (the surgeon yells at a nurse and pulls her face near a surgical opening) and Cohen v. Smith (against the pregnant woman’s religion to be touched or seen naked by the male nurse)(supports tort objective of protecting personal integrity)
▪ Intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with another (or an imminent apprehension of such contact) and harmful or offensive contact with a third person directly or indirectly resuls. Hall v. McBryde (transferred intent rule: intent to cause battery or assault on one person can transfer if battery or assault on a 3rd person results) (defendant fired back at youths shooting towards his house and he hit his next door neighbor during the exchange)
▪ Actor must subjectively intend offensive or harmful consequences; he must appreciate the offensiveness of his conduct. White v. Muniz (insanity only makes it more difficult to prove the intent requirement, but is not a defense) (an Alzheimer’s patient strikes her caregiver in the face)
Assault is an (1) intentional act that creates (2) apprehension of an (3) imminent harmful or offensive contact. Apprehension requires more than words alone. Apprehension requires the D to be aware of the threatened contact. (Rationale: apprehension is a form of