Opinion ID: 1151337
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: elements of assault and battery

Text: McNally and Surrency argue that Harbison failed to establish the necessary elements of assault and battery, because he did not claim to have been physically injured and because he did not present proof that he was touched by Surrency in rudeness, in anger, or in a hostile manner. An actual injury to the body is not a necessary element of a civil assault and battery. Bennett v. State, 57 Ala.App. 568, 571, 329 So.2d 627 (1976). In Singer Sewing Machine Co. v. Methvin, 184 Ala. 554, 561, 63 So. 997, 1000 (1913), this Court stated: As to what acts will constitute a battery in a case like this, the rule is well stated by Mr. Cooley in his work on Torts. He says: `A successful assault becomes a battery. A battery consists in an injury actually done to the person of another in an angry or revengeful or rude or insolent manner, as by spitting in the face, or in any way touching him in anger, or violently jostling him out of the way, or in doing any intentional violence to the person of another. The wrong here consists, not in the touching, so much as in the manner or spirit in which it is done, and the question of bodily pain is important only as affecting the damages. Thus, to lay hands on another in a hostile manner is a battery, although no damage follows; but to touch another, merely to attract his attention, is no battery and not unlawful. And to push gently against one, in the endeavor to make way through a crowd, is no battery; but to do so rudely and insolently is and may justify damages proportioned to the rudeness....' (Emphasis added.) Furthermore, when there is conflicting evidence, as here, the issue of whether there was, in fact, an assault and battery at all is a question for the jury. See Britling Cafeteria Co. v. Shotts, 230 Ala. 597, 162 So. 378 (1935); Wilson v. Orr, 210 Ala. 93, 97 So. 133 (1923); Singer, supra ; 6A C.J.S. Assault and Battery § 50 at 401 (1975).