Tort Law

The dispute that occurred among the individuals had caused potential trespass to person claims. Trespass to person tort is involved in intentional, direct interference to claimants and is branched into three elements: assault, battery and false imprisonment. Phil could claim assault against Grant due to him coming at him in an aggressive manner and for throwing a bottle at him. However Phil could also possibly be prosecuted for Battery, from Grant’s girlfriend, because of the unlawful kiss he enforced on her. On the other hand Grant may be prosecuted by, not only Phil but, Dot for Battery by hitting her with a bottle. Assault is defined as an act that causes another person to apprehend the infliction of immediate and unlawful force on a person. For a case to constitute assault it must be an actionable per se that’s intentional. In R v Belfon 19761 case the judgement concluded that the defendant was not guilty due to the defendant not been proven to have the specific intent required for to be charged with assault. Another criterion of assault is the defendant having to put the claimant in immediate unlawful fear. Stephen v Myers 18302 was a case that in which the defendant was found guilty for coming at the claimant with a clutched fist, while the defendant’s friends held the defendant back. The defendant was found guilty because he put the claimant in immediate fear. Unlike the case of Thomas v NUM 19853 where the judge held that the claimant was accompanied by the police, during the time of the assault, thus not under immediate fear therefore defendant wasn’t guilty. Battery is defined as the act of infliction of direct, unlawful force on a person without their consent. This unlawful force must be intentional as seen in Letang v Cooper 19654 where it was determined that unintentional application of force is 1. R v Belfon [1976] 1 WLR 741, CA 2. Stephens v Myers (1830) 172 ER 735 3. Thomas v NUM [1985] 2 All ER 1 4. Letang v Cooper [1964] 2 All ER