Friday, January 02, 2004

1st Impressions of 1st Reading Assignments: Torts II

Some short cases and some really short cases; ten cases on twenty pages. Here's what I understand; battery occurs if the defendant intentionally - which is proven by desire or substantial certainty - causes offensive or harmful contact; whereas, assault occurs if the defendant intentionally causes reasonable apprehension in the plaintiff of imminent harmful or offensive contact. Mistake, infancy and insanity are not defenses but infancy and insanity can be considered on whether the defendant had the requisite intent.

So if the defendant doesn't touch you, or that plate in your hands, there is no battery but there very well could be an assault if you had reasonable apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that never materialized, but there could also be a battery without an assault if there was in fact intended harmful or offensive contact but you had not known that there was going to be so, yet if you had reasonable apprehension and were harmfully or offensively touched, then there was both an assault and a battery. Right?

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