A patron at a coffee shop becomes angry when another customer accidentally bumps into his table, spilling coffee onto a book he was reading. In retaliation, the patron deliberately throws the book, hitting the customer in the back. Which intentional tort has the patron committed?
The correct answer is battery because battery involves an intentional, harmful, or offensive contact with another person, without their consent. Here, the patron deliberately threw the book, causing it to hit the customer, which satisfies the intent and harmful contact elements of battery.
Although assault is also a tort under intentional tort law, it requires the victim to have a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact, which this scenario does not describe, as the book hit the customer without prior sense of threat. Intentional infliction of emotional distress requires extreme and outrageous behavior intended to cause severe emotional harm, which is not present here. Similarly, conversion involves substantial interference with another's property, not personal harm as caused here.
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What is intentional infliction of emotional distress, and how does it differ from battery?