PERSONAL TORTS
INTRODUCTION PERSONAL TORTS: TRESSPASS TO PERSON
The intentional torts are quite a different creature from negligence;
They are concerned with holding people to account for what they deliberately choose
to do others and they provide a very important form of rights’ protection, particularly
the right to bodily integrity.
If someone deliberately punches me, they commit a tort called battery.
If, on the other hand, they cause an accident in which I am injured, then we are
firmly back in negligence territory.
What are they?
= What do we mean by the personal torts?
Essentially, we are talking about a multi selection of civil actions which protect
people from unlawful (deliberate) interferences with their ‘person’.
‘Person’ here encompasses physical personhood, and trespass to person, in
particular, provides important protection against violations of physical – and
sexual – integrity. [and, in certain limited contexts emotional harm or distress.]
~ A range of torts, some old, some new and still developing, fall under the broad mantle of
‘personal’ including [intangible]:
o Defamation (comprising the torts of slander and libel)
However, other, less tangible aspects of personhood are also protected in tort law.
For example, the action of defamation has long protected people from
unwarranted attacks on their reputation.
Johnny Depp, brought an action for libel (which is a form of defamation) against his
estranged wife, Amber Heard, who had accused him of domestic abuse.
Unfortunately for Johnny, he failed to prove his case – that is, he failed to prove that
the claims Amber made about him were false.
o Trespass to person (comprising assault, battery and false imprisonment)
o Various torts protecting privacy rights (breach of confidence, misuse of private
information)
~ A growing cluster of torts also protect people from various intrusions on their
privacy, for example: the torts of ‘breach of confidence’ and ‘misuse of private
information’.
, Latter claim was successfully raised by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in her recent
suit against the Daily Mail for publishing her father’s private letters.
Although a full-blown tort of invasion of privacy has yet to be recognised, privacy
rights in tort have developed considerably over the last few decades, assisted in part
by the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, incorporating into British law the
European Convention of Human Rights, which includes Article 8 – the Right to
private and family life.
Trespass to Person
Trespass to person – which is a very ancient legal action – occupies very different legal
terrain to negligence.
¡ A suite of 3 torts: assault, battery and false imprisonment
While negligence is primarily concerned with unintentional, carelessly inflicted kinds
of harm,
Trespass to person protects people from direct and deliberate intrusions on their
physical person. [Committed ‘intentionally’ and Causing direct and immediate
harm]
- Moreover, unlike negligence the trespass torts are actionable per se. (i.e., without
proof of damage)
That is, they are actionable without proof of damage.
If the ingredients of the tort are properly made out a claim arises even if
concrete physical harm has not occurred.
~ This is because the trespass torts are concerned with vindicating personal
rights rather than compensating loss.
Ingredients
The ingredients of each of the
three torts which make up trespass
to person: battery, assault, and
false imprisonment
~ Are drawn from the judgment
of Lord Justice Goff in Collins v
Wilcock (1984) (CA)
o In which a police officer
making an arrest was found to
have committed a battery
because she had exceeded her
powers of arrest while doing
so.
