False imprisonment
Type
Definition
Week
Week 5
Course
LA 33: Torts & Personal Injury
Definition
(1) An act that completely confines plaintiff within fixed boundaries set by the defendant, with
(2) intent to confine the plaintiff or a third party, and
(3) causation of the plaintiff’s confinement, when
(4) the plaintiff was either conscious of the confinement OR was physically harmed by it.
Defining the Elements
1. Act. A voluntary movement of the defendant’s body.
2. Complete: A total confinement where plaintiff knows of no safe or inoffensive means of escape.
3. Confine: A restraint of plaintiff’s freedom of movement (e.g., by physical barriers, physical force, threat of physical force, threat of legal authority to confine, or refusing to release plaintiff).
4. Intent to confine. The intent to confine plaintiff or the knowledge with substantial certainty that the defendant’s act will result in the confinement.
5. Causation: But for the defendant’s act, plaintiff would not have been confined, or defendant’s act was a substantial factor in plaintiff’s confinement.
6. Consciousness of the Confinement or Physical harm: At the very least, the plaintiff must have been conscious of the fact that he/she was confined.