Battery
What is the general rule for battery?
One is liable for battery if there is a voluntary act and harmful OR offensive bodily contact results (directly or indirectly).
What is the general rule for assault?
One is liable for assault if there is a VA done with intent to cause apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact and apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact results.
What is the general rule for false imprisonment?
A person is liable for false imprisonment when they commit a voluntary act with intent to confine another person within a limited physical area, confinement results and the plaintiff is aware of the confinement when it occurs, OR if plaintiff is not aware of the confinement when it occurs, is harmed by the confinement.
In what situation is a person allowed to use self-defense?
How does intent transfer?
Tort to tort; victim to victim
When is contact offensive?
Contact is offensive even if it wouldn’t offend most people’s sense of personal dignity if the D knows or should know it would be offensive to the P.
Explain the standard for apprehension.
Apprehension is judged by an objective standard – would a reasonable person have felt apprehension Apprehension doesn’t mean fear but rather, expectation or awareness of an imminent threat of harm or offensive bodily contact.
Define the requisite "intent" with respect to false imprisonment.
Intent is satisfied when a person acts with the conscious purpose to cause confinement of another person against their will or acts knowing with substantial certainty that it will result in confinement of another person against their will.
A person is privileged to use ________ to defend themself against harmful or offensive contact.
reasonable force
Name that tort: As a joke, Annette removes the bullets from her father’s revolver; takes the gun outside, and points it at the head of her neighbor, Mrs. Joiner, who is just leaving her hose. Mrs. Joiner, who unknown to Annette suffers from serious heart disease has a stroke and dies instantly.
Assault
Define the requisite "intent" with respect to battery.
The intent required is (1) conscious objective to cause a harmful or offensive bodily contact or (2) you do an act knowing harmful or offensive bodily contact is substantially certain to result.
_______ are usually not enough to create apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact.
Words alone are usually not enough to create apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact. (need an overt act)
Confinement is judged by an objective standard – would a reasonable person feel confined.
What is the defense of 3rd persons?
If you reasonably believe that another person is under threat of attack, you may use reasonable force to prevent or minimize the attack.
Name that tort: Sandy, 17, throws a snowball at a friend on a crowded street corner. The snowball missed the friend but hits an elderly man who falls to the ground and is injured.
Battery
Explain the sub-rule for instrumentality.
Bodily contact is satisfied as long as the defendant puts into motion some force or instrumentality that causes bodily contact with the plaintiff’s body.
Imminent means "no significant delay" - i.e. there is no significant delay of harmful or offensive contact.
What factors do you apply in your RP analysis for false imprisonment?
physical threats, implicit/explicit threats, false assertion of legal authority, and duress
Generally, is there a duty to retreat if you’re using reasonable force that does not risk death or serious bodily harm?
No
A patient suffering from mental illness was receiving treatment at an inpatient hospital. The patient’s illness caused her to suffer from delusions. One night, the patient’s delusions caused her to be fearful of her nurse. The patient shoved the nurse into a bathroom, slammed the bathroom door shut, and ran away. The patient did not realize that the bathroom door handle was broken and could not be opened from the inside. The nurse, who was unable to leave the bathroom, pounded on the door until one of her colleagues let her out. The nurse sued for false imprisonment.
Is a court likely to conclude that the patient is liable for false imprisonment?
Yes, because the patient intended to shove the nurse.
Yes, because the patient is held to the same reasonable-person standard as a person who does not suffer from mental illness.
No, because the patient did not intend to confine the nurse.
No, because the patient’s mental illness renders her incapable of forming the requisite intent.
1.
A professional baseball player caught a fly ball during a game. The player ran over and tossed the ball into the stands, intending that one of the many fans in the stands catch the ball and keep it as a memento. Instead, the ball struck a woman, who was suffering from osteoporosis, and broke her collarbone. The woman’s osteoporosis had made her bones brittle and particularly susceptible to breaking. Aware of her condition, the woman had reserved seats in the stadium along the dugouts and behind foul-ball netting, where a ball was unlikely to land. However, the player was able to toss the ball over the netting. The woman, who had not been trying to catch the ball, had tried to get out of the ball’s path but failed. The woman sued the professional baseball player for battery.
Which of the following issues is most likely to be dispositive of the woman’s battery claim?
A. Whether the player’s actions would have resulted in physical harm to an average person.
B. Whether the law requires the player to intend harmful and offensive contact.
C. Whether the player was aware of the woman’s osteoporosis.
D. Whether the woman assumed the risk of being struck by a baseball in attending the game.
B.
Marjorie Meadow was directing a movie that included a scene featuring an off-duty police officer who is in a convenience store when an armed robbery takes place. Meadow had arranged with a local convenience store to close the store at 11:00 p .m. so that the filming could take place, and had a large film crew and actors assembled to shoot the scene. At midnight Barbara Baxter had been driving on the highway on which the convenience store was located when she ran out of gas. Seeing the lights of the convenience store in the distance she decided to walk toward it with a gas container she found in the trunk in the hope of getting a gallon of gas. As she got closer Baxter thought the convenience store was unusually busy, but she was relieved to see it was still open. Before she recognized that it was a movie scene, an actor came running out of the convenience store waving a pistol. Baxter was extremely frightened.
If Baxter sued Meadow for assault, would she prevail?
(a) Yes, if Meadow was reckless in causing her to be frightened;
(b)Yes, but only if it were substantially certain that Baxter would experience apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact;
(c) No, if Baxter was unreasonable in failing to recognize that it was a movie set;
(d) No, if Meadow thought that Baxter was just part of the movie set.
(b)
A high-school student decided to play a prank on a teacher. The teacher’s car was parked in the school parking lot. As the teacher entered his car and began backing out of the parking space, the student pulled up behind the teacher in his own car, preventing the teacher from backing his car out of the parking space. The teacher waited in his car, continually asking the student to move out of the way and let him out. After 10 minutes, the student drove away, allowing the teacher to drive away.
Which of the following best explains why the student’s conduct did NOT constitute false imprisonment?
The student did not actually confine the teacher to the parking space.
The student did not use any physical force against the teacher.
The teacher did not experience any harm due to the confinement.
Ten minutes is not a sufficiently appreciable length of confinement.
1
A wife who had endured years of serious domestic abuse by her husband decided to purchase a handgun. During their next argument, the husband told the wife, “I’m gonna smack you if you don’t shut up.” The woman opened her purse, pulled out the gun, and said, “Make me.” The man backed away and called the woman some colorful obscenities. The woman then shot the man, causing serious injuries. The man brought a tort lawsuit for battery against the woman to recover damages for his injuries.
Which of the following rights is most likely to provide the woman with a defense to the tort of battery?
The right to retreat.
The right of shopkeeper’s privilege.
The right to self-defense.
The right to retaliate.
3.
An academic broke into a peer’s office to steal the peer’s groundbreaking research. While the academic was in the peer’s office, a thief, who wanted to steal computer equipment, climbed through the window. The thief lunged at the academic. The academic could have run out of the office, but he decided to stay and defend himself, which he believed he had the right to do. The academic brutally beat up the thief, who nearly died as a result of his injuries.
In what type of jurisdiction, if any, would the academic most likely have had a privilege to use such deadly force?
A. Only in duty-to-retreat jurisdictions.
B. Only in stand-your-ground jurisdictions.
C. In both duty-to-retreat and stand-your-ground jurisdictions.
D. In neither duty-to-retreat nor stand-your-ground jurisdictions.
D.