Battery: Everything You Need to Know

Harmful or offensive contact with the person or another or with something closely appurtenant thereto, caused by an act intended to result in such contact.4 min read

Harmful or offensive contact with the person or another or with something closely appurtenant thereto, caused by an act intended to result in such contact or the in the apprehension thereof directed at the other or at a third person.

It is proposed to consider:

1. What is a battery;
2. When a battery, may be justified.

What Is a Battery?

A battery is the unlawful touching the person of another by the aggressor himself, or any other substance put in motion by him. It must be either wilfully committed, or proceed from want of due care. Hence an injury, be it never so small, done to the person of another, in an angry, spiteful, rude or insolent manner, as by spitting in his face, or any way touching him in anger, or violently jostling him, are batteries in the eye of the law. And any thing attached to the person partakes of its inviolability if, therefore, A strikes a cane in the hands of B, it is a battery.

When Is a Battery Justified?

A battery may be justified:

1. On the ground of the parental relation;
2. In the exercise of an office;
3. Under process of a court of justice or other legal tribunal;
4. In aid of an authority in law; and
5. Lastly, as a necessary means of defence.

For the Public Good

First, as a salutary mode of correction. For example: a parent may correct his child, a master his apprentice, a schoolmaster his scholar, and a superior officer, one under his command.

As a means to preserve the peace; and therefore if the plaintiff assaults or is fighting with another, the defendant may lay hands upon him, and restrain him until his anger is cooled; but he cannot strike him in order to protect the party assailed, as the way in self-defence.

• Watchmen may arrest, and detain in prison for examination, persons walking in the streets by might, whom there is reasonable ground to suspect of felony, although there is no proof of a felony having been committed.
• Any person has a right to arrest another to prevent a felony.
• Any one may arrest another upon suspicion of felony, provided a felony has actually been committed and there is reasonable ground for suspecting the person arrested to be the criminal, and that the party making the arrest, himself entertained the suspicion.
• Any private individual may arrest a felon.
• It is lawful for every man to lay hands on another to preserve public decorum; as to turn him out of church, and to prevent him from disturbing the congregation or a funeral ceremony. But a request to desist should be first made, unless the urgent necessity of the case dispenses with it.

In Exercise of Office or Authority of Law

Secondly, a battery may be justified in the exercise of an office.

• A constable may freshly arrest one who, in, his view, has committed a breach of the peace, and carry him before a magistrate. But if an offence has been committed out of the constable's sight, he cannot arrest, unless it amounts to a felony or a felony is likely to ensue.
• A justice of the peace may generally do all acts which a constable has authority to perform hence he may freshly arrest one who, in his view has broken the peace; or he may order a constable at the moment to take him up.

Thirdly, a battery may be justified under the process of a court of justice, or of a magistrate having competent jurisdiction.

Fourthly, a battery may be justified in aid of an authority in law. Every person is empowered to restrain breaches of the peace, by virtue of the authority vested in him by the law.

In Defense of Self or One's Property

Lastly, A battery may be justified as a necessary means of defence.

1. Against the plaintiff's assault in the following instances: In defence of himself, his wife, his child, and his servant. So, likewise, the wife may justify a battery in defending her hushand, the child its parent, and the servant his master. In these situations, the party need not wait until a blow has been given, for then he might come too late, and be disabled from warding off a second stroke, or from protecting the person assailed. Care, however, must be taken, that the battery do not exceed the bounds of necessary defence and protection; for it is only permitted as a means to avert an impending evil, which might otherwise overwhelm the party, and not as a punishment or retaliation for the injurious attempt. The degree of force necessary to repel an assault will naturally depend upon, and be proportioned to, the violence of the assailant; but with this limitation any degree is justifiable.
2. A battery may likewise be justified in the necessary defence of one's property; if the plaintiff is in the act of entering peaceably upon the defendant's land, or having entered, is discovered, not committing violence, a request to depart is necessary in the first instance, and if the plaintiff refuses, the defendant may then, and not till then, gently lay hands upon the plaintiff to remove him from the close and for this purpose may use, if necessary, any degree of force short of striking the plaintiff, as by thrusting him off. If the plaintiff resists, the defendant may oppose force to force. But if the plaintiff is in the act of forcibly entering upon the land, or having entered, is discovered subverting the soil, cutting down a tree or the like, a previous request is unnecessary, and the defendant may immediately lay hands upon the plaintiff. A man may justify a battery in defence of his personal property, without a previous request, if another forcibly attempt to take away such property.

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