Introduction to the Intentional Torts

Recognize assault in tort law as an intentional, directed act that creates reasonable apprehension of harmful or offensive contact, distinct from criminal assault and merging into battery, with damages available.

Examine the five elements of false imprisonment, including intent, act by the defendant, restraint or confinement, bounded area, and victim awareness, with key examples and coercion exceptions.

Understand trespass to land: intent to enter land in possession of another, including entry or refusing to leave after invitation, or causing entry, with land and its airspace defined broadly.

Trespass to chattels requires intent to interfere with another's tangible personal property in possession. Interference ranges from minor damage to substantial deprivation; ownership beliefs are irrelevant.

Examine how the intent to exercise dominion and control over another's personal property—possession matters—when seriously interfering leads to conversion with full market value damages.

Define the intent element in intentional torts, showing two paths to intent: desire for a result or knowledge of substantial certainty, and address volitional conduct, mistakes, motives, and transferred intent.

Explore affirmative defenses that negate an intentional tort, such as consent, necessity, self-defense, defense of others, and defense of property, with the burden of proof on the defendant.

Consent is an affirmative defense to intentional torts, expressed or implied by conduct or law, judged by objective manifestation. Exceptions include fraud, duress, and lack of capacity.

Understand private and public necessity defenses. Recognize private necessity as an incomplete privilege requiring payment for damages; public necessity protects the community, even when property is harmed to prevent harm.

Defense of property allows reasonable force to protect real or personal property, with deadly force only for home protection. Verbal warnings are required unless futile, and hot pursuit limits apply.

View automatism as a condition that negates intent in intentional torts, not technically an affirmative defense; sleepwalking equates to involuntary action, and the defendant must prove it to avoid liability.

Understand how damages in intentional torts include compensatory damages for medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and emotional harm, plus punitive damages for malice and nominal damages signaling wrongful conduct.

Explore the six intentional torts and their applicable affirmative defenses, and share feedback by email or comments to help improve this law course.