Re: Brain Trauma Injury

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1. Adverse Possession or Prescriptive Easement?
2. Duties of Landowner to Known Trespasser

3. Intentional Tort - Battery

Unfortunately for P, there are only compensatory and not punitive
damages available under Negligence. However, if P can prove
intentional tort, then P can also get punitives. Punitives
generally are not awarded as more than 10 times compensatory, but
for severe brain injury we are talking compensatory of perhaps a
million or more, so P can really make out big with punitives if he
can get them.

The elements for battery are, at least as I recall them, [1]
intent; [2] harmful or offensive contact; [3] with a person or
something connected thereto (e.g., the snowmobile on which P was
riding).

Here, Farmer knew or reasonably should have known that his crates
would be crashed into by a snowmobiler on a snowmobile (element 3),
and that such contact would be harmful to the snowmobiler (element
2). His choice of placing crates across the trail, i.e., at a
place where snowmobilers would already have gained speed not be
able to avoid the crates in time to prevent a crash, rather than
instead electing to block the trail at its ingress, and elected not
to place warning signs, speaks to Farmer's intent to cause
offensive contact with P.

My bar exam answer here would therefore be that Farmer committed a
battery upon P, and that P is entitled to punitives as well as
compensatory damages.

Mikey, how would YOUR bar exam answer differ?

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