Pranks: The legal consequences

BY STANLEY ALIEKE

In 2019, a lab technician, Kevin Berlin, who worked at Gravity Diagnostics in Covington, Kentucky, US, warned his colleagues that due to his medical condition of anxiety disorder and panic attacks he really didn’t want his colleagues to prank him at any time or organise any type of surprise birthday celebration party for him on his birthday which is the company’s tradition.

The company, despite Kevin’s warning, went ahead and pranked him and threw him a surprise birthday party, and consequently, Kevin did indeed experience a panic attack and anxiety disorder just as he told them earlier.

Kevin sued the company for damages and won the lawsuit and the company was mandated to pay him $450,000 as compensation for the damages he suffered.

The above incident just points to the fact that although pranks can be harmless and for entertainment purposes but if any harm is suffered by the victim be it mental, physical, emotional, or psychological, the prankster risks getting prosecuted for criminal or civil liabilities — or even both.

The fact that we laugh at pranks or get entertained by them does not mean that some of these pranks cannot land both the victim and the prankster in deep trouble.

These pranks whereby the pranksters chase people around with fake guns, charge to beat up the victim, or advance to attack the victim all in the name of pranks put the victims’ lives at risk. People who suffer from an anxiety disorder, panic attacks, cardiac arrest, or any other medical conditions can get triggered as a result of it and this could lead them to serious medical conditions or even death. Those that are medically fit and decide to run as a result of the prank can miss their step, fall, and sustain injuries.

Pranksters don’t just stop by pranking the unsuspecting victims, they also go further to record the victim and post it online without the victim’s permission or consent, thereby breaching the victim’s right to privacy and some go as far as invading their victim’s privacy just to prank him or her.

The act of recording the victim and posting them online without the victim’s knowledge or consent can be grounds for the prankster to be criminally prosecuted for the breach of privacy and invasion of the privacy and space of another.

Other criminal actions that may arise as a result of these pranks include; harassment, stalking, disruption of the public peace, constitution of nuisance, etc.

In the worst-case scenario, if the victim of the prank dies as a result of the prank, it does not matter in law that the prankster did not mean it to go that way, the prankster will be prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter.

Involuntary manslaughter has been defined as the unintentional death of an individual as a result of another person’s negligent actions. Basically, what it means is killing someone and not realising your actions could cause death. ‘Unintentional’ is the keyword for involuntary manslaughter because the person did not mean or intend to kill the deceased and the punishment for this crime as provided in S 325 of the criminal code act is life imprisonment.

Even when criminal charges cannot be established against the prankster, the victim can trump up civil actions against the prankster for assault and battery or tort of negligence or sue for compensation if the victim suffered any loss or damages as a result of the prank.

On this note, pranksters should desist from engaging in reckless pranks that put lives in danger and if they must, they should exercise due diligence and caution as they go about their crafts, bearing in mind that huge legal consequences await them if their victim suffers any damage or decides to sue for civil liabilities and citizens should also know that they have rights of action against pranksters who have taken undue advantage of them to sue them for compensation for loss or injury they suffered as a result of the prank.

Most importantly, pranksters should know or be reminded that some people go about with hidden medical conditions and not everyone they meet is medically fit, a person can die as a result of some of these pranks and if that happens, it will be presumed in law that the prankster has caused the death of the victim and he will be prosecuted for manslaughter.

Stanley Alieke is a legal practitioner based in Abuja. He can be reached via [email protected].