Torts Question: Volto and the Kissing Cousins
As I've said, I really don't get torts so far. There's some intuitive understanding of contracts that sticks with me, and Civ Pro isn't holding any fears, but I'm having a hard time outlining the boundaries in torts. And for someone with my boundary issues, that's annoying. Here's the kind of question that springs to my mind, and to which I can find no answer.
Battery. Apparently, knowledge of the battery isn't necessary. My textbook quotes Restatement of Torts, Section 18, Comment d, illus. 2: "A kisses B while asleep but does not waken or harm her. A is subject to liability to B."
Now, consider Restatement 18, comment c: battery covers not only direct contact with the person but "anything so closely attached...that it is customarily regarded as a part thereof and which is offensive to a reasonable sense of personal dignity."
So, imagine a situation where A is making a plaster cast of B's face for purposes of making a mask. B is waiting for the mask to dry, and A kisses the mould lightly enough that B doesn't know A has done so. Is A subject to liability to B? (The situation comes from a rather lousy poem I once wrote.) What is the 'customary' idea a to whether the mould (made, after all, by A) is a part of B? And given that B is lying on the floor with a face covered in plaster, what exactly is the 'reasonable dignity' involved in the situation?
Ah well. I assume our exam (the only closed book, 3-hour exam presently on Exam Watch) will be tougher than the above. My readers are welcome to take a crack at a solution.
