THE LAW ON TRESPASS

1. The five trespass torts: a quick overview

(1) Battery 
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(2) Assault  Trespass to the person
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(3) False imprisonment 

(4) Trespass to goods

(5) Trespass to land (already covered in lectures)

2. Differences from the tort of negligence

2.1. No need for the claimant to have suffered harm (usually)

Slater v Swann (1730) 3 Stra 872, 93 ER 906

2.2. The need for the defendant to have acted directly against the claimant
Arthur v Anker [1997] QB 564
Hartley v Moxham (1842) 3 QB 701, 114 ER 675
Buckle v Holmes [1926] 2 KB 125
League Against Cruel Sports v Scott [1986] QB 240

2.3. Not doing is no trespass

Iqbal v Prison Officers Association [2010] QB 732 (noted, Varuhas (2010) 69
Cambridge Law Journal 438)

2.4. Whether the defendant acted reasonably is irrelevant

Weir, A Casebook on Tort, 10th ed (2004), 322: ‘no one in Britain, no one, can
justify deliberately touching even a hair on [a claimant’s] head, or entering her
garden – much less depriving her of her liberty – merely on the ground that it
was reasonable to do so, or on the more insidious ground that he reasonably
thought he was entitled to do so’ (emphasis in original).

2.5. Recoverable harm

3. General issues affecting the trespass torts

3.1. Intention
Smith v Stone (1647) Style 65, 82 ER 533
Fowler v Lanning [1959] 1 QB 426
Letang v Cooper [1965] 1 QB 232
Wilson v Pringle [1987] 1 QB 237
Re F [1990] 2 AC 1
 3.2. Consent

3.2.1. Is consent always a defence?

R v Brown [1994] 1 AC 212

3.2.2. Validity of consent

Family Law Reform Act 1969, s 8
Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA [1986] AC 112
Chatterton v Gerson [1981] 1 QB 432
KD v Chief Constable of Hampshire [2005] EWHC 2550

3.2.3. Withdrawal of consent

3.2.4. Consent to risk

Blake v Galloway [2004] 1 WLR 2844
Robinson v Balmain New Ferry Company [1910] AC 295
Herd v Weardale Steel, Coal and Coke Company [1915] AC 67
Sunbolf v Alford (1838) 3 M & W 248, 150 ER 1135
Tan, ‘A misconceived issue in the tort of false imprisonment’ (1981) 44
Modern Law Review 166
Arthur v Anker [1997] QB 564
Vine v Waltham Forest LBC [2000] 1 WLR 2383

3.4. Necessity
Gilbert v Stone (1647) Style 72, 82 ER 539
Cross v Kirkby, The Times, 5 April 2000
Criminal Law Act 1967, s 3
Re F (mental patient: sterilisation) [1990] 2 AC 1
Mental Capacity Act 2005
B v An NHS Hospital Trust [2002] 2 All ER 449
Re T (adult: refusal of medical treatment) [1993] Fam 95
Re S (adult: refusal of medical treatment) [1993] Fam 26
St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust v S [1999] Fam 26
Re A (children) (conjoined twins: medical treatment) [2001] Fam 147
Austin v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2009] 1 AC 564

3.5. Mistakes
Ashley v Chief Constable of Sussex Police [2008] 1 AC 962
Percy v Hall [1997] QB 924
R v Governor of Brockhill Prison, ex parte Evans (No 2) [2001] 2 AC 19
Quinland v Governor of Swaleside Prison [2003] QB 306

4. Specific issues affecting the trespass torts

4.1. Battery

4.1.1. Acceptable contact

Collins v Wilcock [1984] 1 WLR 1172

4.1.2. Disciplining children

Education Act 1996, s 548
Children Act 2004, s 58(3): ‘Battery of a child causing actual bodily
harm to the child cannot be justified in any civil proceedings on the
ground that it constituted reasonable punishment.’
 4.2. Assault
Tuberville v Savage (1669) 1 Mod 3, 86 ER 684
Thomas v NUM [1986] 1 Ch 20
Mbasogo v Logo [2007] QB 846

4.3. False imprisonment

Bird v Jones (1845) 7 QB 742, 115 ER 668
R v Bournewood Community and Mental NHS Trust, ex p L [1999] 1 AC 458
HL v United Kingdom (2005) 40 EHRR 32 (noted, Pedain (2005) 64 Cambridge
Law Journal 11)
R v Deputy Governor of Parkhurst Prison, ex parte Hague [1992] 1 AC 58
Iqbal v Prison Officers Association [2010] QB 732

5. An irrelevance: the tort in Wilkinson v Downton

Wilkinson v Downton [1897] 2 QB 57
Wong v Parkside Health NHS Trust [2003] 3 All ER 932
Wainwright v Home Office [2004] 2 AC 406