Dora is driving her car, reaches down to put a new Tort cd into her player and swerves

toward Paul who is crossing the street with a green light. Paul is terrified when he sees
the car coming.
Assault
Under tort law, Dora will be found liable if she, 1) in a volitional movement, 2) intended or
desired or believed with a substantial certainty that the result of her act which she set in
motion would cause ) reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive
touching to Paul.
1) !ere, Dora reaches down to put a new tort cd into her cd player and swerves toward
Paul shows a volitional movement on Dora"s part because it can reasonably be
inferred she had one of her hands on the wheel and thus the wheel was in her
physical control, and that her subsequent not watching the road while putting in
the CD with her other hand caused her to slightly turn the steering wheel towards
Paul. 2) It can reasonably be inferred further that she was putting in the CD because
she wanted to listen to it while driving, thus there is no intent of the volitional movement
of the steering wheel to swerve because it was most likely caused by her
subsequent not looking at the road while putting in the CD. ) #ecause Paul was
terrified when he saw the car coming, there was apprehension of an immediate harmful
or offensive touching because he was aware and grasped the fact that Dora's car
was swerving toward him and was in a distance capable of hitting him and thus
causing inury to his person, and it is likely a reasonable person would be in this
apprehension if a car was swerving toward them.
Paul will argue that her volitional act of swerving the car was intentional because by not
loo$ing at the road while putting in her %D she was acting with $nowledge to a
substantial certainty that the swerving of the car would happen because driving with one
hand on the wheel and not loo$ing is li$ely to result in swerving, and further the light is
inferrably visible for a long distance, and was most li$ely able to be seen prior to her
reaching down and putting in the %D, thus she could have anticipated, and li$ely seen
Paul crossing. !owever, many people loo$ at the center console of their cars while
driving to mess around with the heating&cooling system, radio&%D, etc. and this li$ely
shows that a number of times unconcentrating drivers subse'uently swerve without
intent or belief with substantial certainty that the car would swerve nor that said swerve
would cause apprehension in a pedestrian.
Therefore Dora will most li$ely not be liable for assault.
()ide *ote+ Dora acted negligently rather than intentionally, however Paul would have to
suffer damages to person or property,
volitional movement+ -ctions of the body that are intentional and under control. This is in
contrast to non.volitional movements such as spasms, twitches, etc. a choice or decision
made by the will.