Intentional Torts (done)
(Assault is a threat. Battery is the physical contact)
Even if u didnt hit them, you’ve assaulted them. (harmful or offensive contact)
Battery: BUT if you intend to cause an offensive contact or intend to harm them, then its a battery.
If a doctor doesn’t give u consent for a form, it’s a battery
Assault involves a threat of harm, Battery requires the actual execution of that harmful or offensive contact.
Intentional Torts Overview
Definition: Intentional torts require intention or a deliberate act, that is to desire a harm. It requires volition (a voluntary act): Volition is present if D exercises control over his physical actions. A D’s act is voluntary if it is directed by his conscious mind.
Basic Concepts
3 types
Intentional torts fundamentally need intention or a deliberate act aiming to cause harm against:
Trespass to a person: Wrongful acts against an individual's body. (assault, battery, false imprisonment)
Trespass to land: Wrongful acts against a person's land.
Trespass to chattels: Wrongful acts against a person's goods.
Required Reading: Chapters 4 from McInnes, Kerr & VanDuzer, Managing the 2.
Categories of Intentional Torts
Trespass to a Person
Involves wrongful acts directly impacting an individual’s physical integrity.
Assault:
Definition: intentionally causing the reasonable apprehension or belief of an immediate or imminent harmful or offensive contact, whether actual contact occurs or not.
Reasonable belief - It is enough if the plaintiff reasonably believed that contact was imminent.
Imminent contact - The plaintiff must believe the contact was imminent (a fear of imminent contact)
Harmful or Offensive Contact - It is enough if that the defendant threatened harmful or offensive contact, whether actual contact occurs or not
It is a trespass to a person.
Battery:
Definition: intentional harmful or offensive contact
Contact - It is enough if the contact is to something closely associated with the plaintiff, i.e., clothing, bag, purse. Unlike assault, battery requires “actual” contact.
Not all offensive contact is a battery, i.e., brushing up against a stranger in a crowded elevator.
The contact does not have to be harmful, if it is offensive, i.e., a doctor performing a life-saving operation without consent.
It, like assault, is a trespass to a person.
False Imprisonment:
Definition: intentional restriction or confinement of a person’s movement within any area without legal authority or lawful justification
Involves the deprivation of a person’s liberty
Confinement - The confinement must be complete or almost complete. Physical Force is NOT necessary.
It, like assault and battery, is a trespass to a person.
Examples include false imprisonment, where an individual is restrained against their will, and the use of barriers or threats to prevent someone from leaving a place.
Transferred Intent:
Definition: a legal doctrine that holds that, when intention to harm one individual inadvertently causes a second person to be hurt instead, the perpetrator is still held responsible.
Example: Adam wants to punch or hit Bob but misses and hit Chad instead, the intention to harm Bob is transferred becomes the intention to hit Chad for the purposes of the tort of battery. Chad has a cause of action against Adam. (hitting another person besides your target is a transferred intent)
It applies only to the torts of assault, battery, false imprisonment, trespass to land, or trespass to chattels.
Invasion of Privacy:
Definition: there is no common law tort of invasion of privacy.
An invasion of privacy addressed in B.C by the creation of a statutory cause of action.
It, like assault and battery, is a trespass to a person.
The Privacy Act, R.S.B.C 1996, c.373 states:
1(1) It is a tort, actionable without proof of damage, for a person, willfully and without a claim of right, to violate the privacy of another.
3(2) It is a tort, actionable without proof of damage, for a person to use the name or portrait of another for the purpose of advertising or promoting the sale of, or the other trading in, property or services, unless that other, or a person entitled to consent on his or her behalf, consents to the use for that purpose.
Trespass to Property
Concerns wrongful interference with an individual’s property rights.
Trespass to Land: The wrongful interference with land in the possession of another without lawful justification. (Unauthorized entry onto another's land.)
Elements require: (1) Intent, (2) Enter, (3) Land and (4) possession
It originally required “breaking and entering” (violence similar to with force and arms.) In modern times, it does not require forcible entry, just that the entry was not justified or excused by law.
It does NOT require actual damages
It does NOT require ownership, just the right to possession.
EXCEPTIONS include: accidents, mistakes or consent.
To clarify the law, B.C passed the Trespass Act. R.S.B.C 2018
(a)enters premises that are enclosed land;
(b)enters premises after the person has had notice from an occupier of the premises or an authorized person that the entry is prohibited;
(c)engages in activity on or in premises after the person has had notice from an occupier of the premises or an authorized person that the activity is prohibited.
“Enclosed land” means surrounded by a fence or natural boundary, or posted with a clearly visible and legible sign.
Trespass to Goods: Wrongful interference with personal property in the possession of another without lawful justification.
Elements require: (1) Intent, (2) Interference, (3) Personal Property,
(4) Possession)
Chattels = goods
It requires a direct physical act.
The act must be deliberate or negligent.
It does not require actual damages.
It does not require ownership, just the right to possession.
A mistake is not a lawful excuse.
Conversion: the wrongful interference with the personal property of another in a manner inconsistent (i.e., taking, using, or destroying) with their possession or ownership without lawful justification.
Elements require: (1) Intent, (2) Dominion and Control, (3) Personal Property, (4) Possession, (5) Damages
It is not an invasion of another’s right of possession like trespass to goods, but rather a denial of another’s title to goods.
It requires a positive act to dispose of the goods that is inconsistent with another’s title.
Liability for conversion is strict.
Conversion is a single act. Damages arise from the date of the conversion.
Detinue: the wrongful holding, and failure to return after demand, of the personal property of another without lawful justification
The word “detinue” means holding.
Detinue is a continuing tort. Damages are assessed at the date of trial.
The U.K. abandoned the distinction between conversion and detinue in 1978. It is still used here. B.C. still uses the received common law of England from 1858.
Trespass to Goods = Wrongful interference, e.g., touching someone’s car.
Conversion = Wrongful Altering / Destroying, e.g., Painting someone’s car blue / Selling someone’s car.
Detinue = Wrongful holding, e.g., Borrowing someone’s car and not returning it after they asked for it back.
Complete Defences
Consent: Voluntary agrees to the interference taken against one’s own body, land, or goods. The alleged perpetrator must prove consent.
Maybe express or implied
Must be free and informed
Lawful Authority: Lawfully authorized by statue or lawful arrest (e.g., police, citizen’s arrest).
Self-Defence (Defence of Others): Right to protect oneself from violence or the threat or violence.
Applies to assault and battery only.
Only applies to an immediate risk.
Must use reasonable force (only as much force as is necessary having regard to the nature of the threat.
May apply to the defence of a third party.
Necessity: the defendant must have acted under the stress of an imminent risk to prevent a threatened substantially equal or greater harm. The act must be reasonably necessary. It is a narrow defence.
Partial Defences
Provocation: Words or actions that would provoke a response in a reasonable person.
Partial defences reduce damages only.
Contributory Negligence: When the plaintiff partially responsible for the loss.
Accident/Mistake: may be a defence in some cases, when there is no intention to commit a wrong.