Intentional Torts

Intent

Acting with the desire to produce the legally forbidden consequence

Transferred intent

D intends to commit a tort against one person but instead: commits a different tort against that person; commits the same tort as intended but against a different person; or commits a different tort against a different person

Transferred intent torts

Assault; battery; false imprisonment; trespass to land; and trespass to chattels

Defendant liability

A D will be liable for all resulting consequences from the intentional tort committed, regardless if they are unintended or unforeseeable (no superseding event defense)

Intentional Torts to the Person

Battery, assault, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress

Battery

An act by D; intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact with P’s person; that does cause such contact

Battery Intent

D acts with the desire to produce the legally forbidden consequence

Battery: Harmful

causes actual injury, pain, or disfigurement

Battery: offensive contact

Reasonable person would not permit or consent to contact. Consent implied for the ordinary contacts of everyday life

Battery: Contact and Person

Can be direct or indirect and P’s person includes anything connected to P

Battery Damages

Damages not required. P may recover nominal damages even if actual damages are not proved; P may recover punitive damages for malicious conduct

Assault

act by D intending to create a reasonable apprehension in P of an immediate battery (harmful or offensive contact to P’s person)

Assault: Reasonable apprehension

Fear not required, knowledge of act required - P must have been aware of the threat from D’s act

Assault: Apparent Ability

If D has the apparent ability to commit a battery, this will be enough to cause a reasonable apprehension

Assault: Words

Words alone lack immediacy, but words can negate reasonable apprehension

Assault: Damages

P can recover nominal damages even if actual damages are not proved and P may recover punitive damages for malicious conduct

False Imprisonment

An intentional act or omission on the part of the D that confines or restrains P to a bounded area (no reasonable means of escape known to P)

False Imprisonment: Ways of escape

Ways of escape cannot be dangerous, disgusting, humiliating or hidden

False Imprisonment: Sufficient acts of restraint

Physical barriers; physical force direct against P, immediate family, or personal property; direct threats of force; failure to release P when under a legal duty to do so; invalid use of legal authority

False Imprisonment: Insufficient acts of restraint

Moral pressure, future threats

False Imprisonment: Confinement

Time/duration of confinement is irrelevant, awareness of confinement required

False Imprisonment: Damages

Damages not required. P can recover nominal damages even if actual damages are not proved; P may recover punitive damages for malicious conduct

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (“IIED”)

an intentional or reckless act by D amounting to extreme and outrageous conduct that causes P to suffer severe emotional distress

IIED: Extreme and outrageous conduct

conduct that transcends all bounds of decency tolerated in a civilized society

IIED: Outrageous examples

Targeting known sensitivities; conduct may become outrageous if it is continuous and repetitive, committed by a certain type of D (common carriers or inkeepers may be liable even for mere gross insults); or it is directed toward a certain type of P (YEPS - youth, elderly, pregnant, or supersensitive/fragile adults who is known to D)

IIED: Damages

Actual damages required; physical injury not required and the more outrageous the conduct, the less proof of damages is required

IIED: Bystander Cases

When D’s conduct is directed at a third person and P suffers severe emotional distress of it, P may recover by showing either the prima facie case elements of emotional distress OR that they were present when the injury occurred or the distress resulted in bodily harm or P is a close relative of the third person, and D knew these facts