CAPTION:

NAME: Garratt v. Dailey

COURT: Washington Supreme Court

DATE: (1955)

TYPE OF ACTION: Action for Battery.

FACTS: Plaintiff was about to sit in a lawn chair when Defendant pulled the chair out from underneath her in order to sit in it himself. When he realized that Plaintiff had intended to sit in the same chair, he pushed it back toward her, but not before she fell to the ground, sustaining an injury.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY: The trial court, after a bench trial, dismissed Plaintiff's complaint.

CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES:

PLAINTIFF: Plaintiff can establish liability for a "Battery," even though proof fails to show that Defendant had any "actual" intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with Plaintiff's person.

DEFENDANT: Since proof establishes that Defendant had no "actual" intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with Plaintiff's person, there can be no liability for a "Battery."

ISSUE: Can liability for a "Battery" be established absent proof that Defendant had any actual intent to cause harmful or offensive contact with the Plaintiff's person?

HOLDING: YES

RULE: Intent for a "Battery" may be implied where the defendant has knowledge to a "substantial certainty" that harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff's person will result from the defendant's intended course of action.

RATIONALE:

The requisite intent for a "Battery" may be IMPLIED where the defendant has "knowledge to a substantial certainty" that harmful or offensive contact will result from the defendant's intended course of action.

NOTE: Based upon the Court's analysis in this case, this "Rule" may reasonably be expanded to include any intentional tort. Thus, the "Rule" may be more broadly stated as "Intent for any intentional tort may be IMPLIED where the defendant has knowledge to a 'substantial certainty' that tortious injury to the plaintiff (or at least someone) will result from the defendant's intended course of action."

RESULT: Case remanded for a retrial to determine specifically WHAT this particular Defendant (at age 5 years, 11 months) knew (or didn't know) about the consequences of his pulling a chair away from a person who was about to sit down in it.