Personal injury – (248) 588-3333 – Intentional injuries – Assault and Battery
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In the context of lawsuits for personal injuries, Assault and battery are referred to as causes of action for intentional injuries.
Intentional injuries
A distinctive category of causes of action. As opposed to something like negligence, injuries that were not caused intentionally, but rather due to someone’s carelessness.
When can someone be liable for intentionally inflicting injuries on another person?
In order to be liable for intentionally inflicted injuries, three requirements must be met. First, the act itself must have been a voluntary movement (no reflexive actions). Second, that person must have had the proper intent or mental state. Typically, intentional injury cases require that the defendant either intended to cause the harm or was almost certain that injury would result from their actions. The third requirement is that the act of the defendant must be the primary cause of the injury being sued for. Even there were other causes involved, as long as the actions of the defendant where the most important contribution, they can be held liable for the injuries inflicted.
What if someone intended to injure one person, but ended up injuring a different person, could the third person sue for intentional injury?
Michigan (like most states), observes the doctrine of transferred intent. That means that when the defendant has the right mental state for an intentional tort, but causes an injury to someone other than their intended target, they can still be held liable as if they had injured their intended target.
This prevents the assailant from escaping punishment and ensures that the victim can still be compensated. Furthermore, it makes moral sense to do this given that the injury would not have occurred were it not for the violent actions of the initial assailant.
What is assault?
Assault is any act which would cause a reasonable person to believe that you are about to cause harm or other offensive contact with their person. Exaggerated fears or the belief that harm might come in the far future is not enough. It must be imminent and it must be reasonable.
Mean words alone are not assault. However, a conditional threat, like “your wallet or your life” might count as assault. It does not matter if the defendant is not actually capable of carrying out the threat, as long as the victim reasonably believes they are capable. The defendant must have intended to put the victim in “apprehension” of harm in order to be liable for assault.
What is battery?
Battery is an intentional act which creates harmful or offensive contact with another person. “Harmful” means anything which causes pain, injury or disfigurement. However, “offensive” could be as tame as spitting someone and it would still qualify as battery. Just as long as a reasonable person would consider it offensive.
Defenses to Intentional Injury Lawsuits
What if the injured person consented to the act which injured them?
So long as it was obtained voluntarily (no threats or fraud), then consent is a defense for most intentional injury lawsuits. The defense is only valid if you stay within the bounds of that consent. Most states do not allow consent to criminal acts. Consent can also take the form of “implied consent”, where a reasonable person would believe they have consent based on social custom or common practice between the two individuals. Consent is also implied if you are acting to save someone’s life.
What if I injured the other person in self-defense, or to defend someone else?
If done properly, the defense of self and others is a defense to what would otherwise be lawsuit worthy injuries. Self-defense is not a valid justification if you were the first aggressor (i.e. you started it). Defense of others is justified if the person being protected would have been justified in exercising self-defense on their own behalf.
Unless the assailant is using deadly force, your act of defense must also be non-lethal. However, the right of lethal self-defense is tied into Michigan’s Stand your ground law. That means that your claim must be able to stand up in a criminal homicide trial in order to succeed in a civil lawsuit. In order to comply with the Michigan SYG law, the following requirements must be met:
- The defendant exercising self-defense must not have been engaged in a crime
- The defendant must have been in a location where they were legally allowed to be
- The defendant reasonably believed that their use of force was necessary to prevent imminent death, bodily harm, or sexual assault.
If these requirements are not met, then you have a duty to retreat if you are reasonably able to do so. If not, then you are permitted to use lethal force.
What if the other person wasn’t actually attacking me, I just mistakenly thought that they were?
In that scenario, your act of “self-defense” or “defense of another” is still valid as long as you reasonably believed that the person you injured actually was attacking someone.
Can I also justify injuring someone to protect my property?
Yes, if you do it properly. You may use a reasonable amount of force to prevent someone from causing damage (or trespassing) on your property. However, you are required to give a verbal warning to cease and desist unless it would be pointless or dangerous to do so. Furthermore, once the damage has already been inflicted, you cannot attack the intruder/vandal after the fact. If the intruder has stolen personal property, then the trespass is still ongoing while you are in hot pursuit, and you will have a defense in court for all properly conducted uses of force.
You may not use force if the so called “trespasser” has a “legal privilege” to be on your land. Legal privileges include:
- Necessity: entry onto the property is reasonably necessary to avoid damage or injury resulting from a natural or artificial source. The injury/damage being avoided must be greater than the harm that will be caused by trespassing on another’s land. Necessity can either be public (for the benefit of the public) or private (for the benefit of a small number of people). If the necessity is private, then the intruder must pay for any damage caused (although they will be otherwise protected from other liability).
- Recapture of Chattels (personal property): If someone else’s personal property accidentally or wrongfully ends up on your property, they are legally allowed to go onto your property to retrieve it (like the baseball in Sandlot). However, the owner of the “chattel” must give notice to the property owner and make a request for the return of the item(s) in question. If the landowner refuses to return it, then you may enter. If the landowner did not wrongfully place the item(s) on their land, then the one entering to retrieve the item(s) is liable for any damage caused to the land. If it is your fault that the item(s) are on the other person’s land, then you have no privilege to enter and must resort to legal process to get your property back.
- Privilege of arrest: A police officer or a private citizen may enter another person’s property without a warrant in order to arrest someone on that property. The officer cans still be sued for any misconduct on the property or against the person being arrested. If a citizen makes a felony arrest, then they can be held liable if the arrested person did not actually commit a felony.
Of these privileges to enter land, each of them is also a defense against a personal injury lawsuit.
Can a teacher or parent be sued for disciplining a child?
So long as reasonable force was used, then disciplining a child is a defense to uses of force or injuries that might otherwise result in civil liability.
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