LIA1003 TORT I

TUTORIAL: TRESPASS TO THE PERSON

1. Consider the following situations and decide whether each constitutes an assault
and/or battery:

a) A doctor performs an emergency operation on a patient who is unconscious.

b) A tells B that if B does not settle his debts to A in 3 days' time A will "teach you a
lesson."

c) A goes to the beautician, B, and screamed in pain when B pressed on her acne
in order to clean it up.

2. During a football match between Sentul Rangers and Kerinchi United, the following
events took place:

a) In his attempt to score a goal, Kalvin kicked the ball which hit Gess, a Sentul Rangers
defender. Kalvin actually noticed Gess trying to block him but he pursued with a hard
kick. The ball hit Gess on his face causing him to fall.

b) After seeing Gess falling in pain, Alba, another Sentul Rangers player, yelled loudly at
Kalvin saying, "Hei! Don't try to be tough here!" At the same time Alba rushed towards
Kalvin. However, the match referee was timely enough to intercept Alba whilst blowing
his whistle. He then showed a yellow card to Alba.

c) Three other players from Sentul Rangers Phillip, Soni and Dell charged and pushed the
referee. The referee fell down onto Kasim, a Kerinchi United player. Kasim broke his
arm as a result.

d) The match officials stopped the game due to this chaos. A number of the match officials
escorted Alba, Phillip, Soni and Dell to a special room. These players were told that
they will have to stay there to calm down. Actually the officials were trying to delay them
until the police arrived. The officials had called in the police since they suspected the
players to have taken the drug `ecstacy' before the match.

Discuss the tort liabilities that may have arisen.

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3. Yong, a magician, intending to impress Lily with his new tricks, walked into
Lily's office with a sharp knife and "cut" his own throat in front of Lily. On seeing
the deep cut and the "blood" gushing out Lily fainted and fell to the floor. As a
result of the fall, Lily suffered severe head injuries and she also suffered from
amnesia for 6 months after the incident.

Lily intends to sue Yong. Advise her.

4. Reproduced below is part of a report which appeared in the Straits Times of Singapore
on 27th June 1979:

"A man had the barrowing experience of being locked up overnight in a Singapore
bank's vault. The door of the vault slammed shut while he was going through some
items in his safe deposit box inside the vault ... for some 18 hours - from about 3.20 pm
to 9.30 am the next day - he had to count the hours away in the dark tomb-like silence of
the vault. ... He had taken out his safe deposit box to one of the small rooms and locked
himself in before going through some items in private. Half an hour later when he heard
someone knocking on the door, he put the items back into the box. But before he could
come out of the room, the light of the vaults went out and he found himself in pitch
darkness. He pounded on the door of the vault and shouted for help, but it was in
vain..."

"A spokesman for the bank said that when the man went into the vault, he
was told that the vault would be locked in half an hour. At closing time, the
staff went knocking on the doors to the rooms to check if anyone was in.
There was no response. Assuming that there was no one in the vault, they
locked it up..."

Advise the man what are his chances of succeeding should he sue the
bank for damages for false imprisonment. Give reasons.

5. Daisy had followed a boat trip to watch fireflies at night in their natural habitat.
The trip was organised by Firefly Tours and was scheduled to run from 8pm
until 10:30pm. At first Daisy was enjoying the trip but after half-an-hour she
began to feel sick and wanted to get off the boat. The navigator of the boat did
not entertain her request as the trip had not ended and there were 15 other
passengers on the boat, Daisy had to wait another 2 hours before the boat
reached the jetty.

Discuss whether Daisy can bring any legal action in tort.