Torts

Question 1

Battery

Answer 1

Prima Facie:

1) Act by D that brings about HARMFUL or OFFENSIVE contact to P’s person
2) Intent by D to bring about the harmful or offensive contact
3) Causation

• Offensive = unpermitted
• No damages required, only contact.
• Anything connected with P will suffice.
• Substantial certainty that battery would occur as a result of conduct is enough to establish intent.
• Apprehension is not required by P for battery to be established (battery under sedation for surgery).

Question 2

Assault

Answer 2

Prime Facie:

1) Apprehension of
2) Immediate battery (battery need not be achieved)

• Apprehension must be reasonable, not to be confused with fear or intimidation.
• Apparent ability creates apprehension, even if there is no actual ability to perform immediate harm.
• Apprehension MUST be achieved, rather than just intended by the D.

Words alone are not enough. Words coupled with conduct can be enough. Contrary words coupled with conduct can undo reasonable apprehension.

Question 3

Explain Transferred Intent? (Assault / Battery)

Answer 3

Intent to assault A that results in accidental battery of B transfers the intent to B and is sufficient to establish battery of B.

ALSO, intent to assault A that results in accidental battery to A is sufficient to establish the intent requirement for Battery.

Question 4

When can a person use non-deadly force against another?

Answer 4

1) To regain chattels taken in “hot pursuit” (if demand is made first)
2) To effect a misdemeanor arrest
3) To defend property from tortious interference. (NOT when property is already dispossessed. No “self-help”, must take legal action.)

Question 5

What is the “shopkeeper rule”?

Answer 5

Shopkeeper can detain a person they reasonably believe has committed a theft, and must”

1) conduct the detention in a reasonable manner, and
2) detain the suspect for only a reasonable time.

(Shopkeeper is NOT required to notify police)

Question 6

Defense of the recapture of chattels by using force

Answer 6

Not applicable if the dispossession began lawfully (must use peaceful means to recover)

Force may only be used in “hot pursuit” after dispossession was unlawful.

Question 7

Unreasonable methods of defense of property

Answer 7

Landowner may not intentionally use unreasonable force to defend property (e.g., vicious dog, traps)

Question 8

Private necessity

Answer 8

A person may interfere with the real or personal property of another when the interference is reasonably and apparently necessary to avoid threatened injury from a natural or other force and the threatened injury is substantially more serious than the invasion that is undertaken to avert it.

Question 9

Contrast products liability for negligence with strict liability

Answer 9

Strict liability does not require that suppliers have an opportunity to inspect. (Retailer can be liable for selling a defective product even though it had no opportunity to inspect the product before sale)

Question 10

Products liability based on negligence (unfinished)

Answer 10

• Injured plaintiffs must be foreseeable (no liability for unforeseeable injured bystander)
• Recovery based on solely economic losses are prohibited
• Suppliers must have had an opportunity to inspect the defective product before being held liable for selling it
• If an intermediary negligently fails to discover the defect, then there is liability unless the intermediary’s conduct becomes something more than ordinary foreseeable negligence (becomes a superseding cause)