82 it is battery if water is poured on Plaintiff or a chair is pulled under him or fire a pistol so close to his face as to burn him. It is a battery to seize something from the hand of the Plaintiff. READ: R v. HAMILTON (1891) 12 LR (N.S.W) 111. You must always bear in mind that not all touching or contacts are battery. If this were so, life would be not only difficult but unexcitable. Ordinary contacts, touching, etc. conforming with accepted usages of daily life furnish no cause for complaint, at any rate in the absence of any indication that they would be resented. A good example here would be to tap another on the shoulder to attract his attention. Or brush shoulders in a narrow passage or crowd in a tightly packed bus. It is important to observe that: Not every laying on of hands is a battery. The Party's intention must be considered. Read: JAMES V. CAMPBELL, (1832) 5 C & P. 372.
83 In COLE V. TURNER [1794] 6 Mod. 149 Chief Justice Holt had this to say about battery: "First, that the least touching of another in anger is a battery. SECONDLY, If two or more meet in a narrow passage, and without any violence or design of harm, the one touches the other gently, it will be no battery, or any struggle about the passage to that degree as may do hurt, will be a battery.
