Torts
Practice Exam
Mike
Shecket
Torts
I
Practice
Examination
Fall
2003
Part
1
I
believe that you may have grounds to sue Anne for battery, false imprisonment,
and possibly intentional infliction of mental distress.
When
Anne tripped you and caused you to hit your head, she was committing the tort
of battery. This means that she touched
you with the intent to cause harmful contact and, in fact, succeeded in doing
so. Please note that I do not believe
you will have a case for assault because the alley was dim and Anne tripped
you; thus, she did not create the apprehension (or fear) of
contact. In other words, unfortunately,
you didn’t know what hit you.
I
want to find out from you if you were conscious at any time during your ordeal
in the sewer opening. If you were, then
I believe you will be able to sue Anne for the tort of false imprisonment. Anne acted purposely to confine you to a
bounded area, in this case the sewer opening, without your consent. I would note, however, that you will not be
able to collect damages for false imprisonment if you were unconscious for the
entire length of your ordeal.
Finally,
I think you have a possible cause of action for intentional infliction of
mental distress. Anne behaved recklessly
when she left you in the sewer opening in the alley for two days, including a
full day after she called down to you and thus became aware you were not
okay. Her extreme and outrageous conduct
led directly to a number of your injuries, which produced actual and
quantifiable damages. All I will need to
proceed is your testimony as to the emotional effects of these very real
injuries.
When
Dr. Dave treated you, he was committing the tort of battery against you. We have evidence that he knew you are a
Christian Scientist, and thus he was well aware his conduct would cause you
grave offense.
Part
2
We
must keep in mind that Anne will raise several defenses at trial.
Anne
will claim the privilege of defense of others.
She will claim that she tripped you in order to defend Bob from an
imminent battery in the good faith belief that you were the aggressor.
Anne
will further claim the privilege of self-defense. She will testify that she pushed you into the
sewer opening because she was afraid you would get up and hit her. However, we will argue that once you were no
longer a threat to her she had no right to continue to imprison you.
Dr.
Dave at trial may raise the privilege of consent. In particular, Dr. Dave will bring up the
doctrine of implied consent, which suggests that if you are unable to give
express consent due to being unconscious, Dr. Dave may assume that you would
ask for that which a reasonable person would want. However, this defense should not hold because
he had adequate notice from your bracelets that you in fact did not want to be
treated by him.
Part
3
I
am pleased to report that I am confident you will be able to recover for false
imprisonment and intentional infliction of mental distress from Anne and
battery from Dr. Dave. I believe that
Anne will prevail with her defense of others privilege argument, and thus you
will not be able to recover for battery against her.