Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Battery
A. Elements of Battery
1. Act
2. Intent
a. Purposeful or
b. With a substantial certainty (Garrett)
c. Single intent: Intent to contact
d. Dual intent: Intent to contact, and intent to harm or offend (both)
3. Contact
a. Can be direct or indirect contact. The closer the victim, the more likely
the act is to cause harm.
4. Harm or offense (Snyder)
B. Offensive contact occurrs when the contact offends a reasonable sense of personal
dignity (Cohen)
C. Transferred Intent
1. Attempted tort against one victim, and harmed another (McBride)
2. Attempted tort against a victim, and caused a different tort
D. Liable for all harm that results (eggshell victim)
E. Exception: Children cannot form an intent under a certain age, but children can be
found liable if they appreciated that what they were doing would cause harm, or
was substantially certain it would cause harm (Garrett)
F. Insanity
1. Rational choices are not required
2. Can make a crazy choice to batter (Polmatier)
3. Assuming dual intent, the actor has to appreciate that her actions will cause
harm (White)
II. Assault
A. Elements of Assault
1. Act
a. Mere words may not be enough, probably need further action
(Cullison)
2. Intent
a. Purposeful or
b. With substantial certainty
3. Cause
a. Fear or apprehension in the mind of another
b. of an imminent harmful or offensive contact
B. If a battery occurs and the plaintiff did not have time to fear, then no assault
(Kaufman)
V. Conversion
A. Elements
1. Intent to take possession of item
a. purpose or
b. substantial certainty
2. Exercise substantial dominion over the item. Shown by:
a. Extent and duration of the control
b. Defendants intent to assert a right to property
c. The harm done
d. Expense or inconvenience caused
3. Deprivation of the item results
B. No requirement that the actor is conscious of his wrongdoing (Kelley)
C. Serial conversions: Plaintiff can only recover once if he sues both the theif and the
buyer.
D. Bona fide purchasers: The buyer is not liable unless he knew of the conversion from
the original owner.
E. UCC: A merchant who is entrusted with the item, has rights over the item.
F. If the possessor takes the item in good faith, then no liability.
X. Consent
A. Elements
1. Understanding of the consequences
a. Capacity: In order to be incapacitated, the adult must show that he
i. couldn’t manage his own affairs or
ii. Did not understand the nature or character of the act or
iii. Cannot weigh the harms and risks against the benefits (Reavis)
iv. For consent to be ineffective, the defendant must know of the
incapacity.
2. Willingness to let consequences occur
B. Exceeding consent: If patient consents to one thing, but did not consent to others,
then the scope of the consent is exceeded (blood transfusion)
a. Exception: A surgeon is able to do reasonable acts in the area of the original
incision (cysts during appendectomy)
C. Scope of Consent
1. If a defendant has knowledge of something and does not convey that to the
plaintiff, he is liable (Johnson)
2. A parent consenting for teachers to use time-out does not consent for a time-
out in a poorly conditioned room
D. Revocation
1. Consent can be revoked at any time
XI. Necessity
A. Destruction of property for public good is ok. (firebomb house)
1. If a statute provides for recovery of the damaged property by owner, then state
compensates (Wegner)
B. A person can use property of another, or enter land of another to save his life or
others lives. (Ploof)
1. Must compensate the owner for any damage done due to your use (Vincent)
XV. Harm
A. Plaintiff needs to show that he was harmed by the defendant’s breach of duty.
(Preston).
B. Damages for negligence are primarily compensatory, no nominal damages without
compensatory damages