Fisher v. Carrousel Motor Hotel, Inc.
Texas Supreme Court
424 S.W.2d 627 (1967)
Fisher (plaintiff) was in line at a buffet luncheon during a professional conference at the Carrousel Motor Hotel (defendant) when a hotel employee snatched a plate out of his hand and shouted that a 'Negro could not be served in the club.' The employee never physically touched Fisher's body, and Fisher was never in apprehension of physical injury, though he was embarrassed in front of his colleagues. A jury awarded Fisher $400 for humiliation and $500 in punitive damages, but the trial court set aside the verdict, and the intermediate appellate court affirmed.
Whether a party commits a battery by intentionally touching, in an offensive manner, an object physically connected to another person, even without touching that person's actual body.