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CHAPTER I.

OF CORPORAL SECURITY.

security.

corporal

Evil intent.

Part I. LIFE is the immediate gift of God, a right CAP. I.

inherent by nature in every individual. (1 Right to life Bl. Com. 129, 134.) And, as a general rule,

everyone is also entitled to immunity from

all corporal insults and injuries. Injuries to Injuries to corporal security are either security. direct or consequential. (Broom Com. 662;

3 Ste. Com. 461.)

In order to maintain an action for a bodily injury, whether direct or consequential, it is not essential to show that it originated in any evil intent, or was wilful. may

be sued for an act done accidentally or by mistake, unless it was unavoidable or occasioned by the plaintiff's negligence. Frequently, however, such injuries may be made the subject of a criminal prosecution ; and in that point of view the existence of a criminal intent may be most material. (Broom Com. 662-3; Roscoe on Evid. 592.)

A person SECTION I.

Of Direct Injuries to Corporal Security.
Corporal security may be directly affected Part I.

CAP. I. by threats, assault, battery, wounding, or SEC. I. mayhem.

1. Threats of bodily hurt, through fear 1. Threats. of which a person's business is interrupted, are a ground of action. But they do not constitute a ground of action where they produce no inconvenience. (3 Ste. Com. 459.)

2. An apparent attempt or offer, coupled 2. Assault. with a present ability, to do hurt to the person of another, constitutes an assault; so that even the holding up a fist or shaking a whip, when near enough to be able to hit, or advancing with a whip or a fist uplifted in a threatening manner, is an assault. (Selw. N.P. 26; Add. Torts, 395; Broom Com. 664.)

3. A battery, as distinguished from an 3. Battery. assault, is the actual and unwarrantable striking a person, or touching him, in a violent, angry, rough, rude, or insolent

(Add. Torts, 396; Broom Com. 664, 666; 3 Ste. Com. 459; Selw. N. P. 4.)

4. Wounding is an aggravated species of 4. Woundbattery, amounting to a bodily hurt.

5. Mayhem is the depriving a person of, 5. Mashem.

manner.

ing.

Assault and battery in deience.

Part I. or injuring, a member of the body which is CAP. I.

available for fighting (such as a leg, an arm, SEC. I.

an eye, or a fore tooth), or otherwise injuring him corporally in such a manner as to diminish his power of fighting or defending himself. And for this, or for wounding, heavy damages are recoverable, unless the act amounts to a felony, or can be justified or excused. (Add. Torts, 396; 3 Ste. Com. 460; Wharton's Law Lexicon.)

If the plaintiff was the aggressor, and struck or even only assaulted the defendant in the first instance, and the act of the defendant was in actual self-defence, it is justifiable. And an assault and battery is justifiable when in actual defence of a wife or husband, parent or child, master servant. But if a blow is struck after all danger is past, it is not justifiable. (Add. Torts, 396-7; Broom Com. 665; 3 Ste. Com. 461; Roscoe on Evid. 594; Selw. N. P. 32.) A churchwarden or beadle may,

if necessary, lay hands upon a person, to turn him out of church, for improper behaviour during divine service. (Broom Com. 665-6; 3 Ste. Com. 461.)

An assault and battery may also be justified on the ground of its being in defence of the

or

Forcible ejection or entry.