Does Farmer have any claim(s) for damages against Pilot based on intentional tort? Discuss.

Rule of Law :
The essential requirements of intentional torts are the elements of intent, injury, damages and causation.
The concept of 'intention' does not require that Defendant (D) know that his/her act will cause harm to the Plaintiff (P), but must know with substantial certainty that their act will result in certain outcomes (landing of the plane on the P’s land).
To successfully make a claim against D, P must prove that D acted with purpose when he landed the plane on P’s property, that the act was intentional and it lead to the injury suffered by P (loss of land and crops) and the resulting damages to P’s land and crops.
It is clear …show more content…
As such a key factor to decide under the rule of law will be ‘was this public necessity versus private necessity ?’. Though D took action to minimize loss to the public, the action was also driven by private necessity as D and D’ clients were less likely to be hurt in the vacant field than in the sub-division and/or trees. In addition, the fact that D was a pilot and was flying a commercially paying client will also play a role in deciding public versus private necessity.[4]
b) Did Pilot trespass on Farmer’s Chattel ?
Trespass to chattel is the intentional interference with the right of possession of personal property of another. The defendant's acts must intentionally damage the chattel, deprive the owner of its use for a period of time, or totally dispossess the chattel from the owner.
i. An act by D that intentionally interferes with P's right of possession in a chattel ii. Causation iii. Damages
Based on the facts, it is clear that the Farmer does have a valid claim for ‘trespass to chattel’. The elements of causation and damages to the Farmer’s crops are clear. Even though the facts do state that the Pilot ‘did not see the crops from the air as they had been recently planted’), a the Restatement (Second) of Torts indicates that "intention is present when an act is done for the purpose of using or otherwise intermeddling with a chattel or with knowledge that such an