Garratt v. Dailey

Should defendants be liable if they knowingly expose the plaintiff to a near certainty of harmful contact? If so, should liability still be assigned even if the defendant did not act for the purpose of hurting the plaintiff? As plaintiff prepared to sit, defendant--a five-year-old boy--pulled out the chair from beneath her. Plaintiff fell and fractured her hip. Defendant argued that he had no intent to hurt the plaintiff nor cause her to fall, and that he took the chair to seat himself on it and for no other purpose.