Torts Outline- Brill
Fall 2001

Overview:

*What is a tort? A civil wrong other than a breach of contract for which the law provides a remedy.
*Purposes of Tort law:
Deter wrongful
Encourage socially responsible behavior
Restore injured parties to their original condition
Peaceful means

Intentional Torts

I. Intent
a. Definition—(1) voluntary acts for the purpose of causing [the essential element of the tort] OR (2) voluntary acts with knowledge to a substantial certainty that [the essential element of the tort] will result.
i. For battery, the defendant must have acted with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive touching to plaintiff or some logical extension of plaintiff's person. ii. For assault, the defendant must have intended to cause the plaintiff a reasonable belief that plaintiff was about to immediately suffer a battery. iii. For false imprisonment, the defendant must have intended to confine the plaintiff within some boundaries, from which plaintiff could not reasonably escape. iv. For trespass, defendant intentionally crossed the boundaries of plaintiff's land.
v. For trespass to chattels and conversion, the intent factor was identical; the two torts overlap. Thus, for both of these torts, the defendant had to intend to assert dominion or control over plaintiff's chattel. The completed tort would be trespass to chattels if the exercise of dominion or control resulted in harm to the chattel or if it caused the interference with plaintiff's use of the chattel for an unreasonable length of time. The completed tort would be conversion if the defendant's assertion of dominion or control resulted in damage or interference with plaintiff's use of the chattel of such a serious nature that defendant was required to pay the full market value of the chattel.
b. Not sufficient to show that a certain result might “occur”, “likely