Torts: Intentional Torts, Negligence, and Defenses
Intentional Torts
Battery is harmful or offensive contact; assault is apprehension of an imminent contact (apprehension, not fear). False imprisonment requires confinement within boundaries. Also know trespass to land and chattels, conversion, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Defenses include consent, self-defense and defense of others, defense of property, and necessity.
Negligence
Elements are duty, breach, actual cause, proximate cause, and damages. The standard is the reasonable person, with adjustments: professionals are held to customary practice, children to a similar-age standard (adult standard for adult activities), and landowners owe duties that vary by entrant status (trespasser, licensee, invitee). Res ipsa loquitur permits an inference of negligence when the instrumentality was in the defendant's control and the event would not ordinarily occur without negligence. Negligence per se borrows a criminal statute to set the standard. Strict liability applies to abnormally dangerous activities and to defective products.
Defenses and Special Areas
Contributory negligence is a complete bar where it survives; comparative negligence reduces recovery; assumption of risk requires voluntary, knowing acceptance. Also know defamation (defamatory statement, publication, identification, damages, and fault measured by the plaintiff's status, with per se categories), privacy torts, nuisance, and vicarious liability.
Traps
Assault does not require any contact, and battery does not require the plaintiff to feel fear. Proximate cause turns on foreseeability, not closeness in time. Assumption of risk must be knowing and voluntary.
Worked Example
A swings at B, but B steps back and is untouched. The tort is assault, because B apprehended an imminent harmful contact; there is no battery absent contact.