Elements
The defendant must act intentionally or recklessly.
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IIED
The defendant's conduct must be extreme and outrageous.
The conduct must cause the plaintiff to suffer severe emotional distress.
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IIED
★This standard is quantified by the intensity, duration, and any physical manifestations (ulcers or headaches, for example) of the distress.
Examples
dignitary torts
defamation invasion of privacy
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Torts Against the Person
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Assault
Definition
an intentional act that causes an apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive contact
it at someone pointing a gun at someone pointing a realistic toy gun at someone
Criminal assault and tortious assault
Criminal assault can occur even when no threat is perceived by the victim.
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Battery
Definition
an intentional act that causes a harmful or offensive contact
‘Harmful’ contact
contact that objectively intends to injure, disfigure, impair, or cause pain
Statutes have been passed in attempts to ‘reform’ the tort system.
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General
Most of them have related to procedural matters and amounts and categories of damages.
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Assault
There must be an accompanying act.
The defendant must have the apparent ability to carry out the contact.
Actual ability to carry out the contact is not necessary.
was riding, causing him to fall and be injured mixing something offensive in food that he knows another will eat—the other does in fact eat the offensive matter
A person refused to inform another of the whereabouts of that other's child for several years, though the person knew where the child was the entire time.
Categories of torts
intentional torts
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General
negligence strict liability torts
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Intentional Torts
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General
Definition
An intentional tort is a tort resulting from an intentional act on the part of the tortfeasor.
Criminal law recognizes degrees of crimes involving physical contact.
There is but a single tort of battery.
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False Imprisonment
Definition
the detention of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent
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False Imprisonment
actual confinement awareness of the confinement by the
person so confined no reasonable means of escape
False arrest
‘False arrest’ occurs when someone arrests another individual without the legal authority to do so, which becomes false imprisonment the moment he or she is taken into custody.
Tort Law
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General
Tort
a civil wrong which unfairly causes someone else to suffer loss or harm
★It does not include breach of contract or trust. (A civil wrong can be a tort, breach of contract or breach of trust.)
Subcategories
torts against the person
assault battery false imprisonment intentional infliction of emotional distress
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General
property torts
trespass to land trespass to chattels (personal property) conversion
With the tort of assault, a perceived threat by the victim is paramount.
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Assault
＊A defendant who throws a rock at a sleeping victim and misses can only be guilty of the attempted battery assault, since the victim would not be aware of the possible harm.
The plaintiff must have a reasonable apprehension of such contact.
Actual fear on the plaintiff’s part is not required.
Examples
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Assault
swinging a baseball bat at someone holding a rock and threatening to throw
US tort law
Tort law in the U. S. is largely common law.
Courts have the power to shape and change the elements of claims and defenses of existing toew torts.
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Battery
digging a pit with the intent that another will fall into it later—the other does in fact fall into it
Criminal and tortious battery
Usually battery is prosecuted as a crime only in cases involving serious harm to the victim.
★Apprehension is not the same as fear— here it means awareness that an injury or offensive contact is imminent.
Requirements
The act must be overt.
Mere words do not constitute an assault.
Purpose of tort law
to provide relief to the injured party through the award of damages for the injuries incurred during a tortious act
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General
to deter others from committing the same act
‘Offensive’ contact
contact that would offend a person’s sense of personal dignity