Keel v. Hainline
Supreme Court of Oklahoma
331 P.2d 397 (1958)
After a music teacher arrived roughly 30 minutes late, leaving 35-40 students unsupervised, some students began throwing wooden chalkboard erasers at each other across the classroom. Patricia Ann Burge (plaintiff), studying quietly near the center of the room, was struck by an eraser, shattering her glasses and causing her to lose use of one eye. Burge obtained judgment against six students, including Robert Keel (defendant), who had not thrown any erasers himself but had retrieved erasers and handed them to other students to throw. Keel appealed, arguing Burge's injury was not willful or intentional as to him and was not proximately caused by any wrongful conduct on his part.
Whether, under the doctrine of transferred intent, an actor who assists in an intentional wrongful act toward one person may be held liable to a third person injured as a result.