Term
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Definition
C was sunbathing in a car park
D drove over C’s legs
C sued D for ‘trespass to the perso’ – batter
Court of Appeal = not trespass, as trespass requires intention... willing act AND subjective recklessness |
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Term
Fagan v Commissioner of Metropolitan Police
Unitentional act can become an intentional act & therefore = trespass. Direct act can be committed with the use of an object. |
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Definition
(Appeal case)
D unintentionally drove car on to C’s foot
D realised that he had driven on to C’s foot
When asked to move his car, D initially refused & switched off engine
After being asked to move several times, he eventually moved |
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Term
Scott v Shepherd [1773]
Flexibility of interpretation of ‘direct’ vs indirect, which would = negligence |
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Definition
D threw a lit firework onto someone’s market stall
Firework was thrown from stall to stall until it landed on the C’s stall
D found to have committed a battery against C
INTENTION - judge found that 'the natural and probably intention' of throwing a lit firework into a crowd, was to cause injury... therefore, D intended to apply 'physical force' |
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Term
Reynolds v Clarke [1725]
E.g. of Direct act |
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Definition
| If a man throws a log on the highway, and in that act it hits me I may maintain a trespass because it is an immediate wrong |
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Term
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Definition
| Court of Appeal described battery as ‘an intentional touching accompanied by hostility’ |
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Term
| Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993] |
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Definition
Any treatment given by a doctor to a patient which is invasive... is unlawful unless done with the consent of the patient: it constitutes the crime of battery and the tort of trespass
This is applicable to emergency treatment, which requires individual or next of kin to consent |
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Term
| Chatterton v Gerson [1981] + Obiter Dictum |
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Definition
o D treated C with a pain relieving operation
o C lost sensation in her leg & original pain was not cured
o C alleged that risks had not been fully explained to her & this vitiated her consent, she subsequently sued D for battery
Court found that it was not Battery (as she had given her consent to the ‘broad terms of the nature of the operation’((E.G. SHE HAD CONSENTED TO BEING TOUCHED/BATTERED), therefore consent was not vitiated). Instead it was stated that it could = negligence
OBITER DICTUM – if ‘a boy were admitted to hospital for tonsillectomy and due to administrative error was circumcised instead, trespass would be the appropriate cause of action against the doctor, though he was as much the victim of error’
THEREFORE, NO CONSENT = BATTERY |
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Term
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Definition
A 17 year old girl consented to being beaten by D for sexual gratification
Consent was not a defence
D was guilty of battery (under criminal law) |
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Term
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Definition
D ‘engaged in sado-masochism of the grossest kind, involving inter alia, physical torture’
Consent was not a defence |
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Term
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Definition
D branded initials on to V’s buttocks, with V’s consent
Consent was allowed as a defence
Ratio decidendi – ‘we are abundantly satisfied that there is no factual comparison to be made between Donovan and Brown. Mrs Wilson not only consented to that which the appellant did, she instigated it.... far from wishing to cause injury to his wife, the appelant’s desire was to assiste her... in the acquisition of a desirable piece of personal adornment, perhaps in this day and age no less understandable that a piercing’ |
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Term
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Definition
D, a game keeper, threatened a poacher, by shouting ‘get out the knives’ to other game keepers
Words alone may suffice as an assault |
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Term
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Definition
D made a number of telephone calls to women in which he remained silent / breathed heavily
HOL dismissed his appeal and held that ‘assault could be committed by words or gestures alone, or even silent telephone calls where these caused the victim to fear immediate and unlawful violence’ |
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Term
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Definition
C was chairing a meeting
C tried to remove D from the meeting
D said he would rather pull C from his chair than leave the meeting & advanced towards C waving his fist
D was found to have committed an assault |
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Term
| Thomas v NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) [1986] |
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Definition
C was being transported to work during the miners strike
C was subject to taunts and threat
C sued for assault
It was found that C was adequately protected vehicle, therefore, there was no assault as the threat did not cause C to reasonably apprehend immediate battery |
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Term
| Wilkinson v Downton [1897] |
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Definition
As a joke, D told C that her husband had been badly injured
C suffered nervous shock for which the defendant was held liable
Thus creating the precedent that liability can arise where a D deliberately acts or makes a statement which is calculated to (and does) cause physical harm to the C. |
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Term
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Definition
D’s (who were private detectives) wished to acquire some letters which they believed the C had (C=maid) had access to
In order to coerce C into obtaining the letters, D’s told C that she was wanted for questioning, under suspicion of corresponding with a German spy
As a result, C was very frightened and suffered illness as a result
The D’s were held to be liable |
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