Tort law focuses on the intent of the person committing the "wrong". If the person intended to commit the act, even if the consequences were unintentional, then the tort is termed an intentional tort. Some common intentional torts include: assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, trespass, defamation (slander and liable), and misrepresentation.
Assault. An assault is an intentional act that causes a reasonable apprehension or fear of immediate harmful or offensive contact. Note that either a fear of harmful or offensive contact or an apprehension of such contact is sufficient as long as it is reasonable. Offensive contact has been defined as an unwanted touching. Thus any act that causes someone to have a reasonable apprehension of an unwanted touching could constitute an assault. People with short tempers appear often as defendants in assault cases.
Battery. Battery is an intentional, unauthorized harmful or offensive touching. physical injury is not required. The touching can either be made by the defendant or put in motion by the defendant. For example, throwing a rock, poisoning food, and swinging a club are batteries as long as contact is made and contact normally occurs from such actions. The contact can be to any part of the body or anything attached to it such as a hat or clothing, a purse, a chair, or even an automobile in which a person is sitting. It is inconsequential that the person who committed the act was joking, playing around, or even had some virtuous motive. Motive is irrelevant. Damages available to the plaintiff include not only compensation for any physical harm, but also compensation for emotional harm and loss of reputation.
False Imprisonment. This is the intentional confinement or restraint of another person without justification. Physical barriers, physical restraint, and even threats of physical force are methods of confinement sufficient to constitute a false imprisonment. Merchants often face suit for false imprisonment after they have detained a shoplifting suspect for questioning.
If such detention is unreasonable, it is false imprisonment. Most states have passed legislation designed to protect merchants from suit. The usual statute provides that if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person was shoplifting, then the merchant will not be liable. Merchants should institute a procedure that falls within their particular state's statute. Anytime anyone is detained against their will, there is a potential lawsuit. If the suit is successful, the plaintiff will not even have to prove damages or harm to reputation and mental distress from the imprisonment. The law presumes such damages exist in every false imprisonment case.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress. This is a recent development in tort law. This tort is defined as an intentional act that amounts to extreme and outrageous conduct resulting in severe emotional distress to another. A common case of this type involves, for example, the incorrect informing of a spouse that her husband or children have been killed. Also, repeated annoying behavior coupled with threats that results in extreme emotional distress may constitute this tort.
Trespass to Land. This is one of the most familiar torts. Trespass occurs whenever a person enters or causes anything to enter land that is owned by another, or remains on the land or permits anything to remain on it after permission is withdrawn. Examples of common trespasses include walking or driving across land, shooting a gun across land, throwing rocks against a building or spraying water on it, building a dam across a river that causes water to back up on someone else's land, and placing all or part of a structure on the land of another.
Since property rights extend both above and below the surface, digging beneath someone's land or flying closely above it constitute a trespass. The defendant in a trespass case is liable for damages even if he does not harm the land. In addition, he is liable for any physical harm done to the land.
Defamation. This tort involves the wrongful hurting of a person's reputation. The law divides defamation into slander and liable. The difference between the two is that slander comes from spoken words while liable results from written words. Both require a publication of a statement that holds an individual up to ridicule, contempt or hatred. Publication in this sense means that the statements are made to others besides the defamed party. You can call someone incompetent and dishonest to their face, but it may be slander if anyone else hears the remark.
Even if a third person simply overhears the remark, it is sufficient to constitute publication. Courts have even held that dictating a letter to a secretary constitutes publication. Also, anyone who republishes or repeats defamatory statements is potentially liable even if that person states that they are quoting someone else. This is why most radio stations when broadcasting live talk shows delay the broadcast by seven seconds.
Misrepresentation. The elements of misrepresentation are:
1. Misrepresentation of facts or conditions with knowledge of falsity or reckless regard for the truth.
2. Intent to induce another to rely on the misrepresentation.
3. The plaintiff justifiably relies on the misrepresentation.
4. The plaintiff is damaged because of the reliance.
5. There is a causal connection between the reliance and the damages suffered.
The plaintiff in a misrepresentation case can not only recover restitution damages but also may receive expectation damages, i.e., the benefit he would have obtained had the statement been true. Also, many courts allow punitive damages in misrepresentation cases. This tort is particularly worrisome to the businessmen who may be vicariously liable for the misrepresentation of others.
Malicious Prosecution
An intentional tort arising from the institution or instigation of unjustifiable and unreasonable civil or criminal litigation. An action for malicious prosecution can be brought against the underlying case's plaintiff, plaintiff's counsel and/or advisors.
