Assault

Assault is an intentional tort in which conduct causes another person reasonably to apprehend imminent harmful or offensive contact. The contact need not occur.

Intentional tort: A civil wrong committed through conduct intended to cause a legally relevant result or action. Assault belongs to this family because the defendant’s conduct must be intentional.
Battery (tort): An intentional tort involving harmful or offensive contact with another person without consent or other legal justification. Battery requires contact; assault can be complete before any contact occurs.
Stephens v. Myers: An 1830 English case holding that an apparent attempt to strike could amount to assault despite intervention before contact. The defendant’s movement toward the plaintiff illustrated an apparently immediate threat.
Self-defense: A legal justification permitting proportionate force to prevent imminent unlawful harm. A reasonable apprehension of imminent contact can support defensive action.
Tort law: The body of civil law governing liability for wrongful acts that cause legally recognized harm. Assault is one cause of action within this broader system of civil wrongs.
Transferred intent: A doctrine that applies intent aimed at one person or tort to another person or tort. It can establish assault intent when a defendant targets someone else.
False imprisonment: An intentional tort involving unlawful confinement of a person within boundaries set by another. It concerns restraint of movement, not apprehension of imminent contact.
Tuberville v. Savage: A 1669 English case holding that words accompanying a hand on a sword negated an assault by indicating no present intent to act. Its conditional words showed how speech can remove imminence from a threatening gesture.
Threat: An expression or conduct communicating an intention to cause harm or impose an adverse consequence. A threat may create assault liability when it conveys imminent contact.
Transferred intent doctrine: A tort doctrine that redirects intent from an intended target or tort to an unintended one. It can carry assault intent across targets or between traditional intentional torts.

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