transferred intent


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transferred intent

n. in both criminal and tort (civil wrong) law, when an intent to cause harm to one person results in harm to another person instead of the intended target, the law transfers the intent to the actual harm. Examples: With malice aforethought Nate Nogood intends to shoot his girlfriend and misses her, and the bullet hits a passerby, killing him. Nogood may be charged with first degree murder since the intent to commit murder is transferred to the actual crime. Steve Swinger takes a punch at Harvey Hasgood, his hated enemy, misses Hasgood and hits Hasgood's date, Teri Truehart in the nose, breaking it. Truehart can not only sue Swinger for damages due to the assault, but can claim punitive damages because the malice against Hasgood attaches to the hit upon Truehart. (See: intent)

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The Court of Appeals determined that the doctrine of transferred intent was not necessary to resolve the case, and concluded that the circumstantial evidence established that appellant intended to cause fear of immediate bodily harm or death to all five victims.
Court of Appeals Digest: Jan. 8, 2018
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As the House Judiciary Committee explained in its official report on the bill, transferred intent is a well-established principle in the law.
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It appears that the doctrine of transferred intent, under which the intent to harm one person is transferred to another person who is accidentally injured, does not extend to the intentional injury exclusion.
The intentional acts exclusion
Parts III and IV will proceed to discuss two instances, causal overdetermination and transferred intent, in which courts have been forced to contort legal concepts in attempting to rule out fortuities.
The answer is "yes" under the doctrine of transferred intent.
The rationale for the transferred intent doctrine was clearly expressed by the court in People v.
The role of luck in the criminal law
As the House Judiciary Committee report explains, transferred intent is a well-established principle in the law.
Key Points on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (HR 2436, S. 1673)
In that respect the Act is consistent with the well-settled criminal law doctrine of transferred intent, which provides that when an individual acts with the intent to harm one person, and during the course of the offense hurts another, the law considers the perpetrator to be just as guilty of harming the second as the first.
Statement of Congressman Charles T. Canady

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