Also known as: intentional batteries · battery
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A tort imposing liability when an actor intends to cause harmful or offensive contact with the person of another and such contact directly or indirectly results.
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Ines Ibarra suffered repeated punches to the face from Idris Ives during an argument. She immediately retrieved a knife and stabbed him fatally. The serious battery she endured supplied the adequate provocation needed to reduce a murder charge to voluntary manslaughter.
Iris Irons swung her fist at Imran Iyer's jaw during a heated sidewalk dispute. The blow landed squarely, fracturing his cheekbone. The resulting harmful contact satisfied the elements for battery liability.
Igor Ito lightly tapped Idina Iverson on the shoulder to get her attention in a crowded hallway. The contact caused no pain or offense. Because the battery was trivial, it could not constitute adequate provocation for any reduction in a later homicide charge.
Inertia Dynamics employee Idris Ives deliberately pushed a cart that struck Ines Ibarra. The contact occurred only because Ives set the cart in motion. Liability for battery attached because the harmful contact was caused by his own act.
Iris Irons endured a serious battery from her spouse's lover during a confrontation. The attack immediately triggered her fatal response. Courts recognize such a battery as one of the situations most frequently qualifying as adequate provocation.
Imran Iyer deliberately spat on Igor Ito's face during an argument. The act caused no physical injury yet produced an offensive contact. Liability for battery arose even without intent to inflict bodily harm.
No. Liability attaches when the contact is either harmful or merely offensive, provided the intent and causation elements are satisfied.
No. Intent to cause offensive contact is sufficient even if the actor does not intend or desire any physical injury.
No. Mere words or trivial battery are legally inadequate and do not reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter.
…life-sustaining treatment from her under these circumstances. At common law, even the most beneficent act of a physician is a battery if performed without the patient’s consent. Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital , 211 N. Y. 125, 129-130, 105 N. E. 92, 93 (1914). The logical corollary of the doctrine of…