CAPTION:

NAME: Garratt v. Dailey

COURT: Washington Supreme Court
DATE: (1955)

TYPE OF ACTION: Action for Battery.

FACTS: Plaintiff was about to sit in a lawn chair when Defendant pulled the chair
out from underneath her in order to sit in it himself. When he realized that Plaintiff
had intended to sit in the same chair, he pushed it back toward her, but not
before she fell to the ground, sustaining an injury.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY: The trial court, after a bench trial, dismissed

Plaintiff's complaint.
CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES:
PLAINTIFF: Plaintiff can establish liability for a "Battery,"
even though proof fails to show that Defendant had any
"actual" intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with
Plaintiff's person.
DEFENDANT: Since proof establishes that Defendant had
no "actual" intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with
Plaintiff's person, there can be no liability for a "Battery."
ISSUE: Can liability for a "Battery" be established absent proof that Defendant
had any actual intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with the Plaintiff's
person?
HOLDING: YES

RULE: Intent for a "Battery" may be implied where the defendant has knowledge
to a "substantial certainty" that harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff's
person will result from the defendant's intended course of action.

RATIONALE:
The requisite intent for a "Battery" may be IMPLIED where the defendant has
"knowledge to a substantial certainty" that harmful or offensive contact will result
from the defendant's intended course of action.
NOTE: Based upon the Court's analysis in this case, this
"Rule" may reasonably be expanded to include any
intentional tort. Thus, the "Rule" may be more broadly stated
as "Intent for any intentional tort may be IMPLIED where the
defendant has knowledge to a 'substantial certainty' that
tortious injury to the plaintiff (or at least someone) will result
from the defendant's intended course of action."

RESULT: Case remanded for a retrial to determine specifically WHAT this

particular Defendant (at age 5 years, 11 months) knew (or didn't know) about the
consequences of his pulling a chair away from a person who was about to sit
down in it.