Ghassemieh v. Schafer

Eighth-grade student Elaine Schafer (defendant) pulled a chair away as her art teacher, Karen Ghassemieh (plaintiff), was about to sit, causing Ghassemieh to fall and injure her back, eventually requiring spinal fusion surgery; Schafer testified she intended for Ghassemieh to fall as a joke but never intended to actually hurt her. Ghassemieh sued for negligence, but the trial court instructed the jury to find for Schafer if her conduct constituted battery (for which the statute of limitations had run), over Ghassemieh's objection that the instruction improperly omitted any requirement that Schafer intended to injure her; the jury found for Schafer, and Ghassemieh appealed.