Battery
Definition
(at common law) an intentional act causing an unconsented harmful or offensive contact with a person
Criminal battery and tortious battery
General
Transferred intent
Transferred intent is a doctrine used in both criminal law and tort law when the intention to harm one individual inadvertently causes a second person to be hurt instead.
“Offensive" contact
contact that would offend a person’s sense of personal dignity
Examples
spitting in someone's face
Battery
intentionally knocking a hat off someone's head or knocking a glass out of some-one's hand
actual confinement awareness of the confinement by the
person so confined
False Imprisonment
absence of a reasonable means of escape
Remedies
A court may issue a writ of habeas corpus to release a party from unlawful restraint.
Torts against the person
assault battery false imprisonment intentional infliction of emotional distress
Property torts
trespass to land trespass to chattels (personal property) conversion
wielding a knife
Assault
yelling the word snake to a person whom you know is in fear of snakes
Criminal assault and tortious assault
In criminal law, an assault can result from an attempted battery. Since some attempted batteries might theoretically occur when the victim is sleeping, unconscious, or unaware of the threat, criminal assault can occur even when no threat is perceived by the victim.
Criminal law recognizes degrees of crimes involving physical contact.
There is but a single tort of battery.
Battery
“Harmful" contact
contact that objectively intends to injure, disfigure, impair, or cause pain
Under the law, the individual causing the harm will be seen as having "intended" the act by means of the "transferred intent" doctrine.
General
Subcategories
Definition
an enactment that restricts the time within which legal proceedings may be initiated
Objective
designed to prevent claims from arising after all evidence has been lost or after the facts have become obscure through the passage of time, or the death or disappearance of witnesses
Assault
With the tort of assault, a perceived threat by the victim is paramount.
＊A defendant throws a rock at a sleeping victim.
He can only be guilty of the attempted battery assault, since the victim would not be aware of the possible harm.
The person falsely imprisoned may sue the offender for damages.
IIED
Definition
★short for intentional infliction of emotional distress
★referred to as the tort of outrage in some jurisdictions
Statute of Limitations
Function
The statute of limitations is a defense that is ordinarily asserted by the defendant to defeat an action brought against him after the appropriate time has elapsed.
Assault
Definition
(in common law) an intentional act that creates an apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact
Assault and battery
As distinguished from battery, assault need not involve actual contact—it only needs intent and the resulting apprehension.
False Imprisonment
Definition
the detention of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent
Elements
intent to confine a person within a certain area
Intentional Torts
General
Definition
any intentional acts that are reasonably foreseeable to cause harm to an individual, and that do so
Intent
Intent is most often proved through circumstantial evidence—the defendant’s conduct, in the context of his or her surroundings and what he or she presumably knew and perceived.
General
Underlying policy considerations
maintenance of a peaceful society deterrence social responsibility the balancing of economic interests
against societal benefits
whipping a horse on which a plaintiff was riding, causing the plaintiff to fall and be injured
(a nurse) failing to warn a blind patient that he is headed toward an open window, causing him to fall and injure himself
Tort Law
General
Definition
Tort law is the body of law that deals with civil wronom contract problems.
Purpose
to compensate an injured party through the award of damages for the injuries incurred during a tortious act
Tolling the statute
Most jurisdictions provide that limitations are tolled under certain circumstances.