Defenses to Intentional Torts: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Torts Topic 2, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
Consent given in words, whether oral or written, that defines the scope of the permitted invasion; going beyond that stated scope strips the actor of the defense for the excess conduct.
Implied-in-fact consent
Consent inferred from the plaintiffs conduct and the surrounding circumstances, such as extending an arm in a vaccination line, judged by what a reasonable person would understand.
Consent implied by law
A constructed privilege allowing emergency treatment of an unconscious or incapacitated patient when delay risks serious harm and no contrary wish is known.
Mohr v. Williams
Surgeon consented to operate on one ear operated on the other; absent an emergency the unauthorized operation was a battery even though skillfully performed and beneficial.
O'Brien v. Cunard
Immigrant passenger who held up her arm in a vaccination line was found to have manifested consent by conduct, since apparent consent is measured objectively.
Hackbart v. Cincinnati Bengals
Professional football case holding that consent to a contact sport does not extend to blows struck outside the rules and customs of the game, allowing a civil claim.
Consent to a criminal act
Jurisdictions split on whether consenting to an unlawful fight bars recovery; the majority denies recovery to the willing participant while a substantial minority allows it to deter breaches of peace.
Fraudulently induced consent
Consent obtained by misrepresentation of an essential fact, or by duress amounting to a threat of immediate harm, is legally ineffective and does not shield the actor.
Self-defense
A privilege to use reasonable force to prevent apparently imminent unprivileged bodily harm to oneself, measured by what the actor reasonably believed rather than by hindsight truth.
Retreat rule majority view
Most courts allow reasonable deadly force without any duty to withdraw, treating the safety of the person threatened as more important than avoidance of the encounter.
Courvoisier v. Raymond
Shopkeeper besieged by a mob shot a man who turned out to be an officer; the court held reasonable appearances, not actual facts, govern the self-defense privilege.
Defense of others
Privilege to use force to protect a third person, available in most states when the intervener reasonably believes the person defended is entitled to use such force.
Defense of property
Reasonable non deadly force may be used to prevent intrusion on land or chattels, usually only after a demand to desist unless such a demand would clearly be useless or dangerous.
Katko v. Briney
Spring gun rigged in an unoccupied farmhouse injured a trespasser; the court held that mechanical devices inflicting serious harm cannot be used where the possessor could not lawfully act in person.
Recapture of chattels
A dispossessed owner may use reasonable force to retake goods only in fresh pursuit and only if the taking was wrongful; delay converts the remedy into a legal action instead.
Shopkeeper's privilege
A merchant with reasonable grounds to suspect theft may detain a customer for a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner to investigate, without incurring liability for the restraint.
Bonkowski v. Arlan's Department Store
Detention of a departing customer in a parking area was tested under the merchant privilege, illustrating that reasonable manner, place, and duration control the analysis.
Public necessity
A complete privilege to injure or destroy property when reasonably apparent to be necessary to avert a public disaster, with no obligation at common law to compensate the owner.
Surocco v. Geary
Building blown up to stop the spread of a fire in San Francisco; the destruction was privileged as a public necessity and the owner recovered nothing.
Private necessity
An incomplete privilege permitting interference with property to protect the actor or a few others from serious harm, while requiring payment for the actual damage caused.
Ploof v. Putnam
Boat moored to a dock during a violent storm; the dock owners servant who cast it off was liable, because necessity privileged the intrusion on the property.
Vincent v. Lake Erie Transportation
Ship kept lashed to a dock in a storm was privileged to remain, but the shipowner had to pay for damage to the dock, the classic incomplete privilege result.
Arrest privilege
Officers and in narrower circumstances private citizens may lawfully restrain a person; the scope depends on whether a warrant exists, whether a felony occurred, and on reasonable belief.
Discipline privilege
Parents, and in limited settings teachers or others in loco parentis, may use reasonable force for the control and education of a child, with reasonableness gauged by age and offense.
Sindle v. New York City Transit
Bus driver who refused to stop and drove students to a police station raised justification for the confinement, showing that reasonable restraint to prevent vandalism may be privileged.