Torts Notes - Assault

-The action for assault allows for recovery for interference with peace of mind.
-the action for assault protects the rights of people to be free from fear or apprehension of unwanted contact or physical aggression.
-Assault is defined as an act intended to put another person in reasonable apprehension of an immediate battery and which succeeds in causing an apprehension of battery.
-There must be an intentional, unlawful offer to touch the person of another in a rude or angry manner under such circumstances as to create in the mind of the party alleging the assault a well-founded fear of an immediate battery, coupled with the apparent present ability to effectuate the attempt.
-Must act
    1.  With the intent
    2.  To place the victim in apprehension of a harmful or offensive contact or to make such a contact.
    3.  the victim must reasonably be placed in apprehension of such a contact.
-one who attempts to batter the plaintiff but misses is liable if the plaintiff is placed in apprehension of a blow.  (Transferred intent.)
-fear of future contact will not support liability for assault
-"apparent present ability" is sufficinet if it creates apprehension in the victim.
-mere words alone cannot constitute an assault, unless together with other acts or circumstances they put the other in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact with the person.
-the imposition of a condition that the assailant has no right to impose will not defeat an assault even though the plaintiff can avoid the assault by complying with the condition.
-assault in the tort sense is also a criminal act in the majority of states
-doctrine of mistake can also apply.
-if the tort is committed, you take the plaintiff as you find him.  Meaning you are liable for actual damages, even if they are inexcess of what you had intended the plaintiff to suffer.
-A well crafted complaint should allege a prima facie case.  That is that the basic facts establish the defendant's conduct fits the elemtns of the tort for which the pliantiff seeks damages.