Also known as: battery · batteries · harmful contact · offensive contact
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An intentional tort imposing liability when an actor intends to cause harmful or offensive contact with another person or a third person and harmful contact directly or indirectly results.
Beatrice Brown discovered her spouse in an adulterous act and suffered a serious battery from the paramour. The battery inflicted immediate physical pain and impairment. Beatrice's subsequent killing of the paramour occurred while still under the influence of passion aroused by the battery.
Bradley Banks seized Edward by the shoulders and shook him forcefully several times in a narrow backstage area. Edward experienced immediate sharp neck pain and received a medical diagnosis of whiplash with muscle strain and limited mobility. The contact produced a physical impairment lasting several days.
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Barbara Bennett received only a light push during an argument that occurred weeks earlier. The contact caused no pain or impairment and did not arouse sudden intense passion in an ordinary person. The push therefore supplied no legally adequate provocation for a later killing.
Brianna Burke reached out and grabbed Bianca Blanco by the arm with the purpose of causing offensive contact. The grab directly resulted in a bruise and lingering pain that impaired Bianca's ability to work. The resulting harmful contact satisfied the second element of battery liability.
Bethany Boyd suffered a serious battery when her coworker struck her during a workplace dispute. The blow produced lasting physical impairment. Courts recognize such a battery as adequate provocation that can reduce a subsequent intentional killing to voluntary manslaughter.
Benson Motors' employee swung a tool that struck a bystander through an intermediary object. The resulting contact produced physical pain and a diagnosed impairment. The harmful contact occurred indirectly yet still triggered battery liability.
The actor must intend to cause a harmful or offensive contact or an imminent apprehension of such contact. It is not necessary that the actor intend the precise resulting harm. The intent element is satisfied when the actor desires the contact or knows with substantial certainty that it will occur.
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Yes. A serious battery inflicted on the defendant or a close relative constitutes recognized adequate provocation that can reduce an intentional killing from murder to voluntary manslaughter. The battery must be serious rather than trivial to meet this standard.
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Yes. The Restatement provides that liability arises when harmful contact results directly or indirectly from the actor's intentional conduct. The contact need not be immediate so long as it is caused by the actor's voluntary act.
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…must be understood. That right presupposes no abandonment of the desire for life. Nor is it reducible to a protection against batteries undertaken in the name of treatment, or to a guarantee against the infliction of bodily discomfort. Choices about death touch the core of liberty. Our duty, and the concomitant freedom, to…