AR Bar Torts 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which element is required to establish the tort of battery?
- Harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff's person (Correct answer)
- Words threatening imminent harmful contact
- Publication of false statements of fact to a third party
- Unreasonable interference with the plaintiff's use of property
Correct answer: Harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff's person
Battery requires an intentional act resulting in harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff's person without consent.
Question 2: A defendant who acts with knowledge that harmful consequences are substantially certain to result is acting with:
- Negligence
- Recklessness
- Intent (Correct answer)
- Strict liability
Correct answer: Intent
Under tort law, intent includes acting with substantial certainty that harmful consequences will result, not merely a desire to cause harm.
Question 3: Which of the following is NOT a recognized defense to an intentional tort claim?
- Consent
- Self-defense
- Public necessity
- Contributory negligence (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Contributory negligence
Contributory negligence is a defense to negligence claims, not intentional torts; recognized defenses to intentional torts include consent, self-defense, defense of others, and necessity.
Question 4: Which of the following methods of confinement can establish false imprisonment?
- Moral pressure alone without any physical element
- Physical barriers preventing escape (Correct answer)
- Threats of harm to occur in the future only
- Refusing to provide assistance to someone in danger
Correct answer: Physical barriers preventing escape
False imprisonment can be accomplished through physical barriers, physical force, threats of immediate harm, or invalid assertion of legal authority, but not through moral pressure or a refusal to assist.
Question 5: The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) requires conduct that is:
- Merely insulting or offensive to a reasonable person
- Negligent and resulting in identifiable physical harm
- Extreme and outrageous beyond all bounds of decency (Correct answer)
- Technically a breach of a contractual duty
Correct answer: Extreme and outrageous beyond all bounds of decency
IIED requires that the defendant's conduct be extreme and outrageous, beyond all bounds of decency, causing severe emotional distress to the plaintiff.
Question 6: Under Arkansas law, a property owner may use which level of force to defend property from trespass?
- Unlimited force including deadly force to protect the home
- Reasonable non-deadly force proportionate to the threat (Correct answer)
- Deadly force whenever the trespasser refuses to leave
- No force whatsoever, only legal remedies are available
Correct answer: Reasonable non-deadly force proportionate to the threat
A landowner may use reasonable, non-deadly force to protect property, but deadly force is not justified solely to protect property interests.
Question 7: Trespass to land is complete upon which showing?
- Actual damage to the landowner's property
- Intentional physical entry onto another's land without permission (Correct answer)
- Knowledge by the entrant that the entry was unauthorized
- Economic harm suffered by the landowner
Correct answer: Intentional physical entry onto another's land without permission
Trespass to land only requires an intentional act causing physical entry onto another's land without permission; actual damage and knowledge of trespass are not required elements.
