Ben Blanks

Garratt v. Dailey Brief

Citation: 279 P. 2d 1091

Parties: Naomi Garratt (plaintiff, overreactive relative), Brian Dailey (defendant, 6-

year-old boy)

Facts: The plaintiff walked into her backyard where the defendant was sitting in a
chair. A bit later, the plaintiff moved himself and the chair a few feet away. He
then noticed the defendant start to move to sit at the spot the chair previously was
sitting; he panicked, leapt to his feet, and tried to quickly move the chair to the spot
where the plaintiff was about to try and sit down. Being that the defendant is a frail
six-year-old child, he couldn’t make it to the spot with the chair in time. As a
result, the plaintiff fell and fractured her hip. Can’t generalize on length here, since
these briefs are case-specific. Some may be super short, some may be super long;
for torts, make them as long as they need to be. The reason we don’t need the bit
about the witness is that it is not relevant to the matter of fact at hand.

Procedural History: The plaintiff appealed from the defendant’s granted motion to
dismiss at trial; plaintiff asked for a judgment at a damages amount of $11,000 or a
new trial entirely. Nein, my g. Trial court actually ruled in favor of the defendant
and dismissed the case; plaintiff’s appeal looks good though!

Judgment/Order: Case remanded for trial court to more specifically focus on

whether or not Brian intended to cause harm or offense.

Issue: Was the trial court correct in granting the defendant a motion to dismiss the
plaintiff’s claim that the defendant willfully, knowingly, and maliciously moved
the chair with the intent to cause the plaintiff to fall? So yeah you probably fucked
most of this up because if missing the whole “substantial certainty”/”specific
purpose thing”, but that’s ok. It’s over now and you probably weren’t the only one.
Just don’t do it again.

Holding: No

Reasoning: (?? Get this from the TWEN site, but the gist of this is that she wants
this to be written in as formalistic and legalistic of language as possible. It’s gonna
probably be wordy, which sucks, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. The tort of
battery is dependent, at least in part, on intentionally and knowingly bringing harm
to someone. Had there been definitive, or at least more conclusive, proof in the
trial court case of plaintiff’s actions being intentionally and knowingly malicious,
it is possible that Brian could be charged with battery. Thus, it is worth seriously
considering his intentions. Incorrect. “Specific purpose” to complete this battery is
sufficient, but not necessary. “Substantial certainty” is also sufficient to qualify as
a battery, which is when there is reason to believe some hard could come from
your actions. A lack of “specific purpose” on Brian’s part is not enough to absolve
him from responsibility of battery here.

Rule: To prove the tort of battery, one must also credibly demonstrate the
occurrence of competent malicious intent. Unfortunately, not correct here. Gotta
throw in that substantial certainty bit. Age looms as critical factor for court.

Conclusion: Whether dependent had substantial certainty or not; the kid is six, it’s
possible he had no idea

It’s no problem buddy. You and I are not in the exact same position; I can’t
imagine how you’re feeling in terms of… I guess fitting in, for lack of a better
word. You’re a very personable guy , don’t get me wrong, but you’ve mentioned a
couple of times that you feel quite out of your element due to your background, for
lack of a better word. That said, I’ve always been more of an “old soul”, for lack of
a better word (not saying you’re old haha), and people of my own generation
normally scare me. In the past, most if not all of my friends were always older than
me; I mainly befriended upper-class students at my high school (that is until I
became one) and hung out with a lot of the teachers. I’ve managed to do ok here,
but I’ve really had to push myself and take some relative risks. People my age still
scare me.

I have that voice too. It’s tough to live with it sometimes, I’ve really had to do a lot
of work on it myself to quiet it down. I’ve gotten a lot better about it, especially in
the last two years. Still crops up every now and then, but at least I know how to
fight it now I guess. I’m sure you’re doing the best you can to live with it too (:

It was great meeting you earlier! I have office hours with Sundquist tomorrow,
maybe I’ll run into you or something and be able to spill the tea haha. Also I would
honestly love to get coffee at some point next week if you’re around, you’ve done
some cool stuff and I’ll always take an excuse to get my beloved sludge! No
worries if you are busy or would rather just not!