BPP Tort Law GDL Revision and Chapter Notes
BPP Tort Law GDL Revision and Chapter Notes
BPP Tort Law GDL Revision and Chapter Notes
BPP Tort Law GDL Revision and Chapter Notes
BPP Tort Law GDL Revision and Chapter Notes
Trespass to the personis the intentional cause of
injury, as opposed to the negligent cause of
injury. An employer can be vicariously liable for an
employee who commits trespass.
1) Assault
2) Battery
3) The Rule in Wilkinson v Downton
4) False Imprisonment
Actionable per se: without proof of damage and require
an act, not an omission
Battery
“the direct and intentional application of force by D to C
without lawful justification”.
1) Intentional
a) Letang v Cooper: Negligence is not enough to
show intentionality
b) Fowler v Lanning: C was shot by D. There
would have been no trespass if the shooting was
caused unintentionally.
c) Innes v Wylle: Must be an act, not an omission.
d) Livingstone v MOD: Transferred malice still applies
2) Direct
a) Reynolds v Clarke: Includes if someone throws
something on a road in someone’s path.
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, b) Fagan v CMP: Did not remove car from policeman’s
foot. This was an act, not an omission.
c) Dodwell v Burford: D struck a horse that C was
sitting on = direct.
d) DPP v K: boy hid acid in hand-dryer = direct.
3) Application of Force
a) Any physical contact
i) Cole v Turner: “the least touch of another
in anger is a battery” ii) R v Cotesworth :
spitting iii) Nash v Sheen: applying hair dye
4) Hostility
a) Wilson v Pringle: “it must be a question of
fact”
5) Defences
a) Consent
i) Express = consent to broad nature and terms
of medical procedure
(Chatterton v Gerson) ii)
Implied = gettingon a tube at
rush hour (Re F)
iii) R v Tabassum: patient consented to medical exam
but D was not medically qualified. Consent
invalid.
iv) R v Brown: consent invalid for ABH
b) Necessity (Re A (Conjoined Twins))
i) the act is needed to avoid inevitable and
irreparable evil ii) no more should be done than
reasonably necessary iii) the evil inflicted must not
be disproportionate to the evil avoided
c) Self-Defence
i) Defence of personand property
ii) Cockroft v Smith: bit off finger to avoid being
poked in the eye iii) Bird v Holbrook: spring
gun not acceptable to protect property iv) Lane
v Holloway: what is reasonable depends on
the facts
d) Statutory Authority
i) Lawful arrest and detention
e) Reasonable Chastisement
i) Consider nature, context, duration, mentaland
physical consequences, age and personal
characteristics of the child, reasons for
punishment.
f) Contributory Negligence is N/A (Co-Op v Pritchard)
g) Inevitable Accident
Assault
“an act that produces in C a reasonable expectation of
immediate, unlawful force”
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– R v Beasley
1) Intentional Act
a) Can be words without gestures (R v Wilson: “get
out the knives”)
b) Silence can be assault(R v Ireland)
c) Words can negate gestures (Tuberville v Savage:
hand on sword + “if it were not assize time I
would not take such language”).
2) Apprehension of Immediate Battery
a) A threat to future harm may not be enough (Thomas
v NUM: minerswho were striking threatened to
hurt him, but he was in a protected vehicle).
b) Effect on a reasonable person, not subjective
apprehension (R v St George)
c) ‘Immediate’ can be any time in the near future (R v
Ireland: silent phone calls).
3) Defences – Same as Battery
The Rule in Wilkinson v Downton
Essentially practical jokes that cause harm.
In Wilkinson v Downton D told C that her husband
had been badly injured in an accident. C suffered
nervous shock and D was held liable.
1) Deliberate acts or words
2) Calculated to cause harm to the claimant
3) Unlawfully
False Imprisonment
“an act of D that directly and intentionally causes the
complete restriction of C’s liberty without lawful
justification”
1) Intentional Act
a) Accidently locking someone in is not false imprisonment
(Sayer v Harlow)
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2) Imprisonment
a) C’s liberty must be restricted in all directions
(Bird v Jones: was not allowed to walk
across a bridge = not false imprisonment)
b) They are only expected to take reasonable means to
gain their freedom
c) C does not need to be aware that he is
being imprisoned (Meering v Grahame-White
Aviation: employee was locked in office b/c
suspected of theft. Asked to wait there).
d) No need for actual force (Davidson v CCNW: “stay
here or I’ll kill you”)
3) False
a) Without lawful justification
i) Lawful includes contractual obligations (Robinson v
Balmain New Ferry: refused to pay a
penny to get through a turnstile; Herd v
Weardale Steel: miner refused to continue his
shift and demanded to be brought to
surface = no false imprisonment).
b) Wrongful continuation of lawful imprisonment can be
false imprisonment (Toumia v Evans: locked in
cell for longer than usual b/c of prison officers’
dispute).
4) Defences – Same as Battery
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