Also known as: implied consent rule · implied consent
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A privilege that protects an actor from liability for intentional invasions of personality interests when circumstances indicate a reasonable person would consent if aware of the facts. The privilege arises independently of actual consent yet is customarily analyzed alongside consent doctrines. It applies in emergencies such as preventing suicide, averting imminent physical harm, or performing life-saving medical procedures on an unconscious patient.
Israel Irving stands on a curb when a vehicle suddenly veers toward him. Idris Ives, seeing the danger, shoves Israel to the ground without using excessive force. Israel suffers a scraped knee and later sues Idris for battery. Because the shove occurred to avert imminent serious injury and a reasonable person would have consented, the implicit consent rule supplies a complete defense and Idris incurs no liability.
After being struck by a train, Ulysses Upton is brought unconscious to a hospital. Surgeon Vera Vale determines that immediate leg amputation is required to save his life. Vale performs the procedure before Upton regains consciousness. Upton later sues Vale for battery. Because a reasonable person would have consented to the life-saving operation and the privilege arises from those objective emergency facts, the implicit consent rule defeats the claim.
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No. The rule operates as a privilege based on objective circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to consent. It does not turn on the particular plaintiff's subjective wishes.
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The privilege is lost. When the actor has actual knowledge that the plaintiff would not consent to the extended or different action, liability attaches even if the action appears medically necessary.
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Express consent is an actual manifestation of willingness. The implicit consent rule supplies a legal privilege that exists even without any manifestation, arising instead from emergency conditions that justify the invasion.
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…since it required only a finding that the out-of-state driver had used the State's roads. By contrast, both the fictions of implied consent to service on the part of a foreign corporation and of corporate presence required a finding that the corporation was "doing business" in the forum State. Defining the criteria for making…