Intro to Torts & Prima Facie
An external manifestation of one's will
What is act?
The intentional infliction of a harmful bodily contact upon another.
What is battery?
Rule for False Imprisonment
(1) An actor is subject to liabilty to another for false imprisonment if
(a) he acts intending to confine the other or a third person within the boundaries fixed by the actor, and
(b) his act directly or indirectly results in the confinement of the other, and
(c) the other is conscious of the confinement or is harmed by it.
Privilege of Consent
(need not phrase answer as question)
(1) Consent is willingness in fact for conduct to occur. It may be manifested by action (expressed consent) or inaction (implied consent) and need not be communicated to the actor.
(2) if words or conduct are reasonably understood by another to be intended as consent, they constitute apparent consent and are as effective as consent in fact.
Rule for Defense of Others
"Defense of others" is a defense to liability for an alleged crime that is in defense of a person other than oneself. It refers to a person's right to use reasonable force to protect a third party from another person who threatens to use force on the third party. Some jurisdictions require that the person has a special relationship with the third party as a condition of using "defense of others," such as a parental relationship or a parent relationship. However, most juridictions do not require a special relationship, just require the reasonable belief that is was necessary to defend the third party.
What is intent?
Rule for Battery
An actor is subject to liability to another for battery if
(a) he acts intended to cause offensive or harmful contact, or the imminent apprehension of such a contact, and
(b) a harmful or offensive contact directly or indirectly results.
Rule for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Damage (IIED)
(No need to phrase answer as a question)
(1) One who by extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another is subject to liability for such emotional distress, and if bodily harm to the other results from it, for such bodily harm.
(2) Where such conduct is directed at a third person, the actor is subject to liability if he intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress
(a) to a member of such person's immediate family who is present at the time, whether or not such distress results in bodily harm, or
(b) to any other person who is present at the time, if such distress results in bodily harm.
Self-defense is this type of privilege.
What is a non-consensual privilege?
Derivative Defense of Others vs. Independent Defense of Others
Derivative (some courts): The privilege to use force to defend 3d P only exists when the person being defended is privileged to use force (ex: D sees X hit P, and D runs over and hits X, thinking he is saving P; it turns out P is resisting a lawful arrest by X, an undercover officer. D’s behavior is not privileged (bc P did not have the privilege of self-defense)).
Independent (restatement - majority): The privilege to use force to defend 3d P exists independently from the person being defended (ex: D sees X hit P, and D runs over and hits X, thinking he saves P. As long as D reasonably believes P would be privileged to use defense, D’s behavior is privileged).
The outcome of an act
What is result?
The immediate expectation or anticipation of a harmful or offensive contact.
What is "imminent apprehension?"
Rule for Trespass
(no need to phrase answer as question)
One is subject to liability to another for trespass, irrespective of whether he thereby causes harm to any legally protected interest of the other, if he intentionally
(a) enters land in the possession of the other, or causes a thing or a third person to do so, or
(b) remains on the land, or
(c) fails to remove from the land a thing which he is under a duty to remove.
Privilege of Self-Defense By Force Not Threatening Death or Serious Bodily Harm (Restatement §63)
(1) An actor is privileged to use reasonable force, not intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, to defend himself against unprivileged harmful or offensive contact or other bodily harm which he reasonably believes that another is about to inflict intentionally upon him.
(2) Self-defense is privileged under the conditions stated in Subsection (1), although the actor correctly or reasonably believes that he can avoid the necessity of so defending himself,
(a) by retreating or otherwise giving up a right or privilege, or
(b) by complying with a command with which the actor is under no duty to comply or which the other is not privileged to enforce by the means threatened.
In this case, the actor protecting another can still have a legitimate defense if he is reasonable in his belief as to who the aggressor is and the amount of force used.
What is a mistake?
All the elements must be proven by this
What is preponderance of the evidence?
The Garratt Rule
As long as the defendant desires to cause the harmful or offensive contact and the contact actually occurs as a result of the defendant's actions, a battery is established.
Rule for Chattels
(no need to phrase answer as question)
§ 217: A trespass to a chattel may be committed by intentionally
(a) dispossessing another of the chattel, or
(b) using or intermeddling with a chattel in the possession of another.
§ 218: One who commits a trespass to a chattel is sibject to liabilty to the possessor of the chattel if, but only if,
(a) he dispossesses the other of the chattel, or
(b) the chattel is impaired as to its condition, quality, or value, or
(c) the possessor is deprived od the use of the chattel for a substantial time, or
(d) bodily harm is caused to the possessor, or harm is caused to some person or thing in which the possessor has a legally protected interest.
Self-Defense Against Negligent Conduct (Restatement §64)
(1) Except as stated in Subsection (2), an actor is privileged to use reasonable force, not intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, to defend himself against harmful or offensive contact or bodily harm which he reasonably believes to be threatened by the conduct of another, although he recognizes such conduct to be negligent.
(2) The actor is not privileged so to defend himself if he knows or should know that he can escape the necessity of doing so by retreating, or by giving up the exercise of a right or privilege which, under the circumstances, it is reasonable to require him to relinquish.
Rule for Defense of Property Not Threatening Death or Serious Bodily Injury (Restatement §77)
§77 (DOP by force not threatening death or serious bodily harm): An actor is privileged to use reasonable force, not intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, to prevent or terminate another's intrusion upon the actor's land or chattels, if
(a) the intrusion is not privileged or the other intentionally or negligently causes the actor to believe that it is not privileged, and
(b) the actor reasonably believes that the intrusion can be prevented or terminated only by the force used, and
(c) the actor has first requested the other to desist and the other has disregarded the request, or the actor reasonably believes that a request will be useless or that substantial harm will be done before it can be made.
DAILY DOUBLE: Give your version of an Intentional Torts Umbrella Rule
All intentional torts require an act, intent, and result to establish a prima facie case. "Act" is the external manifestation of one’s will. "Intent" is when one acts with the purpose or desire for a result. "Result" is the outcome of the act. All elements must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence to be held liable.
Rule for Assault (Restatement §21)
(1) 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 imminent apprehension of such a contact, and
(b) the other is thereby put in such imminent apprehension.
(2) An action which is not done with the intention stated in Subsection(1, a) does not make the actor liable to the other for an apprehension caused thereby although the act involves an unreasonable risk of causing it and, therefore, would be negligent or reckless if the risk threatened bodily harm.
Rule for Conversion
(no need to phrase answer as question)
(1) Conversion is an intentional exercise of dominion or control over a chattel which so seriously interferes with the right of another to control it that the actor may justly be required to pay the other the full value of the chattel.
(2) In determining the seriousness od the intereference and the justice of requiring the actor to pay the full value, the following factors are important:
(a) the extent and duration of the actor's exercise of dominion or control;
(b) the actor's intent to assert a right in fact inconsistent with the other's right of control;
(c) the actor's good faith;
(d) the extent and duration of the resulting inference with the other's right of control;
(e) the harm done to the chattel;
(f) the inconvenience and expense caused to the other.
Self-Defense Threatening Death or Serious Bodily Harm (Restatement §65)
(1) Subject to the statement in Subsection (3), An actor is privileged to defend himself against another by force intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, when he reasonably believes that
(a) the other is about to inflict upon him an intentional contact or other bodily harm, and that
(b) he is thereby put in peril of death or serious bodily harm or ravishment, which can safely be prevented only by immediate use of such force.
(2) The privilege stated in Subsection (1) exists although the actor correctly or reasonably believes that he can safely avoid the necessity of so defending himself by
(a) retreating if he is attacked within his dwelling place which is also not the dwelling place of the other, or
(b) permitting the other to intrude upon or dispossess him of his dwelling place, or
(c) abandoning an attempt to effect a lawful unrest.
(3) The privilege stated in Subsection (1) does not exist if the actor correctly or reasonably believes that he can with complete safety avoid the necessity of so defending himself by
(a) retreating if attacked in any place other than his dwelling place, or in a place which is also the dwelling place of the other, or
(b) relinquishing the exercise of any right or privilege other than his privilege to prevent intrusion upon or dispossession of his dwelling place or to effect a lawful arrest.
Rule for Defense of Property by Force Threatening Death or Serious Bodily Harm (Restatement §79)
The intentional infliction upon another of a harmful or offensive contact or other bodily harm by a means which is intended or likely to cause death or serious bodily harm for the purpose of preventing or terminating the other's intrusion upon the actor's possession of land or chattels, is privileged if, but only if, the actor reasonably believes that the intruder, unless expelled or excluded, is likely to cause death or serious bodily harm to the actor or to the third person whom the actor is privileged to protect.
Battery
(Prima Facie)
The defendant acts.
The defendant intends harmful or offensive contact or an imminent apprehension of such a contact.
The result is harmful or offensive contact.
Transferred Intent
If one person intentionally strikes at, throws at, or shoots at another, and unintentionally strikes a third person, he is not excused, on the ground that it was a mere accident, but is a battery of the third person.
False Imprisonment
(Prima Facie)
An act that completely confines a plaintiff within fixed boundaries.
An intention to confine.
The defendant is responsible for or the cause of the confinement.
Rule for Character and Extent of Force Permissible (Restatement § 70)
(1) The actor is not privileged to use any means of self-defense which is intended or likely to cause a bodily harm... in excess of that which the actor correctly or reasonably believes to be necessary for his protection...
The 3 requirements for Recapture of Chattels
What is (1) chattel wrongfully taken, (2) reasonable force, and (3) hot pursuit?
Assault
(Prima Facie)
The defendant acts.
The defendant intends to cause the victim to apprehend imminent harmful or offensive contact by the defendant.
The defendant's act causes the victim to reasonably apprehend such a contact.
What does "contact" include? Does contact need to be physical?
"Contact" includes actual bodily contact or contact closely identified with the body. Contact can either be harmful, causing bodily injury, or offensive, causing injury to a reasonable sense of personal dignity.
Trespass
(Prima Facie)
Act - Without authorization: enters P’s land, or remains on P’s land, or fails to remove an object on P’s land.
Intent - to enter, remain, or fail to remove from the land a thing which he is under a duty to remove
Result - Unauthorized entering, remaining, or failing to remove objects on P’s land.
When a shopkeeper may have the privilege to detain an individual for a reasonable period of time if they reasonably believe that the individual is in possession of shoplifted goods from their store.
Rule for Apprehension of Imminent and Future Contact (Restatement §29)
(1) To make the actor liable for an assault he must put the actor in apprehension of an imminent contact.
(2) An act intended by the actor as a step toward the infliction of a future contact, which is so recognized by the other, does not make the actor liable for an assault under the rule stated in §21.
Rule for Private Necessity
(Incomplete defense): One is privileged to interfere with the property interests of an innocent party if it is, or if the actor reasonably believes it to be, necessary in order to prevent great harm to third persons or the defendant himself, or to protect the land or chattels of either, though the actor may be held liable for the damage he causes in the course of asserting this privilege.
Rule for Public Necessity
(Complete defense): One is privileged to interfere with the property interests of an innocent party if it is, or if the actor reasonably believes it to be, necessary for the purpose of averting, or mitigating the effects of, an imminent public disaster. Public necessity exists when one appropriates or injures a public property interest to protect the public good of the community. Can still be liable, but not necessarily owe damages.