Trespass/Conversion
1 Intentionally enters, or causes a thing or a third part to enter the land in possession of another
2. Intentionally remains on the land after permission to be on land is removed
3. Intentionally fails to remove from the land an item that the defendant is obligated to remove
Elements of Public Nuisance?
Who may sue?
1. An unreasonable interference
2. With a right common to general public
3. D has control over the instrumentality causing the interference
Who can sue?
A. Public official or agency
B. Group or private citizens who suffer harm of a different kind
What constitutes offensive contact?
A bodily contact is offensive if it offends a reasonable sense of personal dignity.
Elements of IIED and give an example of a resulting harm.
1. Intentional or reckless (with regards to distress)
2. Conduct/Volitional Act
3. Causes
4. Sever Emotional Harm
5. Extreme and Outrageous
Harm: missing work, hypertension, depression, etc.
A person who knows risk of harm or facts that make risk obvious to another person; Risk outweighed taking the precaution:
this person is said to be ________
Reckless
Which trespass requires plaintiff to show actual harm that resulted from the trespass, and what are some of those resulting harms?
1. Trespass to chattels
2. Harm can be: Loss of use for a significant period of time, harm to P's person or personal property, or damage to the condition of the personal property
What is consent?
1. Actual or Apparent
2. Willingness in the fact for conduct to occur
3. Manifested by action or inaction
Fill in the blank.
Assault does not apply to ____ which can be seen as ______.
Restatement 21(2)
Defendant was visiting at plaintiff's home. While plaintiff was away, defendant decided to commit suicide and slit his throat in the kitchen. Plaintiff returned to find defendant's apparently lifeless body and blood everywhere. Defendant recovered and Plaintiff sued for IIED.
Is the intent element of IIED satisfied? Why or why not?
Yes, defendant recklessly inflicted mental distress on plaintiff.
Explain Shopkeeper's Privilege
2. Reasonable Grounds
3. Reasonable Length of Time
Not liable for false imprisonment if these elements are met
A cyclist was riding on a sidewalk when someone in a parked car suddenly opened the door of the car into her path. She swerved to avoid the car door and rode onto a landowner’s property, damaging some plastic lawn ornaments of waterfowl placed in his front yard.
In a suit by the landowner against the cyclist for the damage to his lawn ornaments, what is the likely result?
A The cyclist is liable because she had no privilege to enter onto the landowner’s property.
B. Whether the cyclist is liable depends on whether she was exercising due care.
C.The cyclist is liable for the damage to the lawn ornaments even though her entry was privileged.
D. The cyclist is not liable for the damage to the lawn ornaments because her entry was privileged.
C The cyclist is liable for the damage to the lawn ornaments even though her entry was privileged.
1. D's conduct
2. Causes
3. Intentional and unreasonable or otherwise actionable
4.Invasion of private use and enjoyment of land
5. Causes significant harm
What interest does Battery protect?
What interest does Assault protect?
Battery: Protect's a party's interest in being free from unconsented bodily contact
Assault: Protects a party's right to be free from fear/anxiety or expectation of touch
The hottest ticket in town was for the final game of the World Series. Scalpers were selling the $100 tickets for as much as $5000. Jose couldn't believe his luck when a drunk in a bar sold him a ticket for face value. Jose's luck turned at the gate to enter the stadium. The ticket taker said "This ticket has been scalped and is void. I'm confiscating it." Jose argued with the ticket taker, the supervisor, and even the team vice president, all to no avail. They confined him outside the stadium and he missed what was later called "the game of the century." Disappointed, determined, and darn mad, Jose filed suit. Was this false imprisonment?
No, one cannot say Jose was "confined" from entering the stadium.
What are the five defenses to intentional torts?
2. Defense of self
3. Defense of others
4. Defense of property
5. Necessity
Force available to use to prevent the dispossession or intrusion of property.
Requirements for that force.
Reasonable force allowed, deadly force not.
Before using reasonable force,
D must ask the other party to stop the interference.
Objective & Subjective Test for Informed Consent.
Exceptions to the informed consent requirement.
Objective Test: Would a reasonable patient have gone forward with surgery?
Subjective Test: Would THIS patient proceed with surgery
Exceptions: Emergencies, Communication would threaten patient's well being, or exceptions can shift consent from P to P's family members.
After a sporting event at a stadium, one of the fans sought out the referees to complain about their handling of the game. The fan took out an electronically amplified bullhorn and knocked on the door of the referees’ room. When one of the referees opened it, the fan began yelling and berating the referee through the bullhorn. The referee slammed the door shut, striking the bullhorn and jamming it against the fan’s mouth, knocking out two of his teeth.
If the fan asserts a claim based on battery against the referee and the referee prevails, what is the likely reason?
A. The referee did not foresee that the bullhorn would knock out the fan’s teeth.
B The referee did not know that the door was substantially certain to strike the bullhorn.
C. The referee was entitled to use force to protect himself.
D. The fan’s conduct provoked the referee’s response.
B The referee did not know that the door was substantially certain to strike the bullhorn.
Confinement is complete if:
1. Other believes authority is valid or
2. Doubt authority, but still submits to it
What is the paper mache rule (don't know how to spell it sorry.)
Actor takes the victim as the actor finds him or her, with all the victim's physical frailties.
Bakst, working at a shipping company, switched the shipping label on Roxie's new set of golf clubs with the label on a package destined for Japan. The golf clubs are never recovered. Can Roxie satisfy a prima facie case of conversion against Bakst even though Bakst does not have possession?
Yes. Possession of the chattel by the actor is not necessary for conversion. A bona fide argument can be made that Bakst has interfered with Roxie's dominion and control of the golf clubs so seriously that he should be required to pay their full value.
P consented to surgery on her left ear, because it was infected and causing hearing problems. During surgery, D examined the right ear and realized it had the same problem and decided to operate on it to help P.
Consent?
No. D exceeded the consent given to operate on the one ear, and it would only have been privileged if it was an emergent situation.
An elderly woman had just completed a ride as a passenger in a taxi. The taxi driver opened the rear door of the taxi to let the woman out. The woman appeared to be having difficulty standing, so the taxi driver gently held her wrist to assist her in exiting the taxi. Unbeknownst to the taxi driver the woman belonged to a religious denomination that prohibited any physical contact between women and unrelated men. The woman was extremely upset by the taxi driver's contact.
Battery?
No, because a reasonable person would not have found the contact offensive.
A, a small and weak man, takes hold of B's coat for the purpose of detaining him against his will. B is a much larger man and could, with little exertion, free himself at once. B submits.
False Imprisonment?
Yes. A has confined B. It is not necessary that physical force should be such as to overcome the resistance of a man of ordinary strength.
Factors to determine when an activity is abnormally dangerous
1. Activity creates a foreseeable and highly significant risk even with reasonable care; and
2. Activity is not a matter of common usage