If you are familiar with the Magic Kingdom, then you know that they have parades all the time. The photo above is taken from just across the bridge in Liberty Square as I had my girl on my shoulders for her first Electrical Light Parade. Funny thing about these parades, though. Even though they happen every day, and sometimes twice a day, crowds of people gather from all over the park to watch them. Because I've been bumped a time or two tonight, it made me think about a totally relevant section of law that may not be obvious to those that didn't endure years of law school: Battery.
Battery, in its simplest form, is the harmful or offensive touching of another. There are criminal and civil elements to battery, but most jurisdictions follow similar doctrines for both.
To commit a battery, you must have the intent to commit such contact. However, it is enough to know "to a substantial certainty" that such a contact will occur, so if I through a bag of popcorn into a crowd of people, say, watching a parade, I know to substantial certainty that it will hit someone. I do not, however, have to have the intent that it be harmful or offensive; just that contact will or may occur. Similarly, if I try to weave through a crowd to get a better view of the parade, I will probably be bumping into people here and there. Either of these actions would satisfy the intent requirement.
It is not enough, however, that contact merely occur. That contact must be either harmful OR offensive. Harmful contact is obvious. If, as I weave through the crowd, I knock someone over and they scrape their arm, I'm on the hook. What most people overlook is the "offensive" component of battery, which is where we enter a gray area.
What is offensive varies both from person to person and by situation. When a crowd is trying desperately to see a parade, it is probably less offensive that I get shoved than, say, in the mall as I walk down the aisles. Similarly, pulling my wife close to me is (usually) not offensive to her but it could be if I did the same thing to my secretary.
Many folks get caught up in the "I didn't mean for it to embarrass them" business, but it really does not matter whether you intended the contact to be offensive. If you know to a reasonable certainty that it could be offensive, the contact could constitute battery.
Lastly, for battery to occur, contact must actually occur. Assault comes into play without contact, but then only if a possible recipient is aware that contact might occur. So if I swing the magic wand my daughter got from Cinderella at the woman in front of me, but her back is turned, no assault. If she sees me, however, that's assault.
These are generalities that I am speaking of, and each jurisdiction will have statutory or common law guidelines that might include or exclude certain elements of this action. I just can't resist writing about battery as I get pushed around by eager parents and kids as they attempt to catch a glimpse of Neon Mickey.
JD
John D. Duncan is president of J.D. Duncan, PC, founding partner of Prater, Duncan & Craig, LLC in Newnan, Georgia, and is Esquire by Day. You can find him at www.jdduncanlaw.com, or follow him on twitter and Facebook.
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