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.
Battery because the operation was made without the patient’s consent.

b) A tells B that if B does not settle his debts to A in 3 days' time A will ‘teach you a
lesson."
Assault because A’s threat does affect B to feel fear of him/her since there is a capability for A to
carry out the threat.

c) A goes to the beautician, B, and screamed in pain when B pressed on her acne in
order to clean it up.
Battery because B pressed it with intention to clean it up and it was voluntarily made by B
without others forcing him/her. There is also physical contact when B pressed the acne without
A giving consent to do so.

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.
Assault
-Gess knew that Kalvin would kick the ball towards him and something would happen because
of that.

Battery
-Kalvin applied force when he kicked the ball intentionally.
-The ball that hit Gess happened without Gess’s consent.
-There is a contact between the ball kicked by Kalvin with Gess’s face.
-Kalvin voluntarily kicked the ball hard without any of his teammates telling him to do so.
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.
Assault
-Alba does have the intention to make Kalvin scared of him.
-Kalvin must have felt fearful to be beaten as he saw Alba rushed towards him.
-Alba really carried out his threat as he already rushed towards Kalvin but was intercepted by
the match referee.

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.
Assault
-Philip, Soni and Dell charged towards the referee with a bad intention.

Battery
-Philip, Soni and Dell intentionally pushed the referee without the referee’s consent. They did it
within their control since they did it voluntarily out of dissatisfaction. There is also a physical
contact happening here when they push the referee.

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. Actuallly 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.

False imprisonment
-It is where the plaintiff is confined forcefully or without any reason, so he/she can’t move to
another place in accordance with his wishes.
-In the situation, Alba, Philip, Soni and Dell were locked in a special room as they were
suspected to have taken the drug ecstacy.
-The main purpose for them to be locked is that the officials were trying to delay them until the
police arrived, so this is false in fact because the players were still not confirmed to be guilty and
thus they should have moved freely to wherever they wanted to.

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.

ISSUE
Whether Lily can sue Yong under tort law for assaulting her with his sudden magic trick.

LAW
Elements assault:
1) mental state of defendant- the defendant must have intention to do his act.
2) the effect on the plaintiff- the plaintiff must have had a legitimate fear that they might be
subjected to force.
3) capability to carry out the threat- this is measured through the eyes of a reasonable plaintiff.
4) bodily movement- refers to an action that, in the given conditions, indicates that the plaintiff
will carry out his threat.

Case: R v St George
St. George had an argument with the plaintiff and took out a gun. The defendant (St George)
pointed the unloaded gun at R. He was in any event prevented from taking further action by a
third party. The Defendant was prosecuted for assault. The issue arising here is that does
pointing an unloaded gun constitute assault? Thus, for there to be an assault, the fear of the
victim must be a reasonable one. To measure this, a victim's state of mind at that time is
important. It is an assault to point a weapon at a person, though not loaded but so near that if
loaded, it may be different if the plaintiff knew that the gun was unloaded, then any fear would
be regarded as unreasonable. However, in this case, the court held that the defendant was held
guilty of assault as the victim was in fear that he would be shot by the gun.
APPLICATION
Elements assault:
1) mental state of defendant- Yong intends to impress Lily with his new tricks but Lily doesn’t
know that he was going to do that.
2) the effect on the plaintiff- Lily fainted and fell on the floor as she saw Yong cut his own throat
using a knife. As a result of the fall, Lily suffered severe head injuries and she also suffered from
amnesia for 6 months after the incident.
3) capability to carry out the threat- With the intention to impress Lily, Yong cut his throat right
after he walked into Lily’s office. If anyone is at Lily’s position, everyone would be scared and
shocked.
4) bodily movement- Yong walked into Lily’s office with a knife and out of sudden he cut his own
throat.

Case: R v St George

CONCLUSION
Lily might have a possibility to sue Yong under tort law for assaulting her with his sudden magic
trick as Yong had fulfilled all elements of assault.

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.

Elements false imprisonment.

1) mental state of defendant
-the def. must intend to do an act which results in the confinement of the plaintiff.
-the staff locked the door of the vault as there was no response when he/she knocked on the
door, so the staff assumed that there was no one inside. In fact, the man was actually about to
go to the door, but then the light of the vault went out, so he pounded on the door of the vault
and shouted for help.

2) restraint must be a direct consequence of the defendant’s act

-Only the person who directly causes the confinement may be successfully sued for false
imprisonment.
-it was a direct consequence of the staff’s act as the man was locked inside after the staff locked
the door of the vault. However, he was told that the vault would be locked up in half an hour.

3) the restraint must be complete

-there must be no way for the plaintiff to move to other places.
-There is no other way for that man to come out from the vault unless there is someone to open
that door.

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.

ISSUE
Whether Daisy can bring legal action against the navigator of the boat for the false
imprisonment.

LAW
Elements false imprisonment:
1) mental state of defendant- the def. must intend to do an act which results in the confinement
of the plaintiff.
2) restraint must be a direct consequence of the defendant’s act- only the person who directly
causes the confinement may be successfully sued for false imprisonment.
3) the restraint must be complete- there must be no way for the plaintiff to move to other places.

Case: Warner v Riddiford

The defendant after dismissing the plaintiff as resident manager of a beer-house prevented him
from going upstairs to collect his belongings. The court held that it amounted to false
imprisonment.

APPLICATION
Elements of false imprisonment:
1) mental state of the defendant: the intention of the navigator of the boat when he won’t end
the trip was because there are still 15 passengers on the boat who still enjoyed the trip.
2) restraint must be a direct consequence of the defendant’s act: the navigator of the boat is the
one who restraint Daisy from getting off from the boat since there are still 2 hours to arrive at the
jetty.
3) the restraint must be complete: there is no other way for Daisy to get off the boat, so she
have to wait for 2 hours on the boat even though she felt seasick.