Assault and battery - Coursework Example

Assault and battery in sports The intentional torts of assault and battery are widely spread in sports. According to Glover, W. and Glover Jr., W.H.(2009, p.50) “An assault is a willful attempt or willful threat to inflict injury upon another person…A battery is the actual intentional physical contact.”1However, there are types of sports which do actually require a certain degree of violence, like boxing or other fighting sports. Nevertheless, the other types of sports, like basketball, baseball or football do not focus on violence.

Therefore, it often happens that unnecessary violent behavior in sports is subject to criminal law. However, unfortunately, the Courts have not yet drawn a clear line between necessary and unnecessary violence in sports. It is clear that contact sports imply random injuries. The difference is that when injuries are the result of deliberate, unfair, unacceptable and excessive use of violence, it becomes assault and/or battery, depending on the result. This is the case of aggressive players. In order to establish the existence of assault, the next test is applied: 1.

Intentional, unlawful threat to hurt somebody; 2. The threatened person felt a well motivated fear of imminent attack and 3. The possibility of realizing the threat is undoubtful. A similar test is applied in order to establish battery: 1. The existence of a violent act towards the plaintiff; 2. The defendant willingfully used the violence and 3. The causation: the violent act hurt the plaintiff. Therefore, I believe that the user of a deliberate elbow to the face or a knee to the groin in basketball, the deliberate use of spikes by a runner in baseball, eye gouging in football, or other violence that causes unnecessary injuries in sports can be held liable for assault and/or battery, the key words in all this being deliberate and unnecessary.

In case that the act does not comply with the test described above, the act shall not be considered criminal and the defendant will not be held liable for it. References: Glover, W., Glover Jr., W.H. (2009). Sports Law Handbook.