CASE

“The commander”

When I was a fourth year medical student beginning a surgical rotation, I was assigned to the operating room of a chief whose reputation had earned him the name “The commander.” At a certain point in the procedure, the resident was called away leaving the intern and several medical students. The surgeon singled me out and ordered me to suture the patient. I protested, explaining this was my second day and I did not feel qualified. He yelled back that “the only way to learn is to plunge in.” As I hesitated he became enraged, slapped my shoulder and pushed me toward the table. I obeyed, despite serious misgivings, but when I made a minor mistake he struck my hand sharply with an instrument. For some time after I suffered with a bruised shoulder and a cut finger.

COMMENTARY

Law schools instruct their students that any un-consented-to touching constitutes a technical battery. Any threatening gesture, even when interrupted, which was meant to produce fear in the targeted party in torts law amounts to an assault, giving rise to a potential recovery even for what is effectively an incomplete battery.