79 Pa. Super. 596 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1922
Lead Opinion
Opinion by
The appellant was tried and convicted upon an indictment charging assault and battery, and after sentence to pay the costs of prosecution, a fine of $500 and imprisonment in the county jail for a period of sixty days he appealed to this court.
The testimony offered by the Commonwealth, if true, warrants the following statement of facts: Joseph Cauffiel, appellant, is mayor of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In his official capacity as mayor he presides over the police court of that city. While so presiding, on the morning of December 11, 1920, Mary Berzonsky, the prosecutrix, a girl aged about nineteen years, and Joseph Csicsmanyi, her employer, the proprietor of a butcher shop in Johnstown, were arraigned before the mayor on a charge of disorderly conduct. Until that time the mayor had no connection with the case. During the hearing the girl was asked whether she had carnal intercourse with her employer, and when she answered in the negative the mayor directed one of the police officers to summon one Doctor Bertha Caldwell and have her make a physical examination of the girl. Doctor Caldwell, codefendant with Mayor Cauffiel, was then, and for twelve years had been, probation officer of Cambria County. When the probation officer came to the police station, the mayor told her to take the girl to her
Complaint is made, in the first assignment of error, of the charge of the trial judge in its entirety. An examination of the charge compels the conclusion that it is subject to the imputation of fundamental and basic error because it failed to state the principles of law applicable to the case of a judicial officer who is charged with a crime committed in line of the performance of his duties. Appellant had jurisdiction over the prosecutrix and the offense on which she was tried before him. Section 23 of the Act of May 27,1919, P. L. 310, relating to third class cities provides, inter alia: “The mayor shall have the criminal jurisdiction of an alderman within the city......He shall have the power of a committing magistrate under the acts of assembly relating
In Gardner v. Couch, decided by the Supreme Court of Michigan and reported in 101 Northwestern Reporter, 802, it was held that a justice of the peace is not liable in an action for false imprisonment merely because he reached an erroneous decision where he was acting judicially in having the plaintiff confined in jail. The court said: “We would be bound to hold that a conviction under such a complaint and warrant would not justify a detention if plaintiff sought relief by habeas corpus proceedings......But does it follow that defendant, who was a justice of the peace acting judicially, is responsible as a trespasser because he reached an erro
An excellent discussion of the principle that a judicial officer cannot be called to account for his determinations and acts in his judicial capacity is to be found in 15 Ruling Case Law, page 543, Edition of 1917. It is there stated that the rule rests on the highest considerations of public policy; that the integrity of the judiciary demands that the threat of personal liability shall not be,
The principle enunciated in the above authorities was recognized and adopted by this court in Hanna v. Slevin, 8 Pa. Superior Ct. 509, which was an action for trespass brought against a committing magistrate for refusing to hear all the testimony offered by the plaintiff and at the same time acting in a rude, violent and insulting manner and submitting the plaintiff to personal indignities and holding him up to contempt and ridicule. We there said: “The general rule both in this country and in England is, that justices of the peace while acting within the scope of their authority are not answerable in damages for the merely erroneous exercise of purely judicial functions. There is nothing in this case to take it out of the general rule......We all agree that in the absence of proof of fraud or corruption, the fact that the manner of the magistrate was rude and his judgment mistaken, would not give the prosecutor a right of action.”
Tested by the principles as declared in the foregoing decisions and opinions of text writers, the learned trial judge failed to instruct the jury upon the law applicable to the case and thus fell into error so basic and fundamental that we must consider it although the objections now made were not raised below: Kelly v. Pittsburgh & Birmingham Traction Company, 204 Pa. 623; Sikorski v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company, 260 Pa. 243. After having correctly defined assault and battery, he said: “This evidence is all to be carefully considered by you, and......if you believe it in the essential features, that the prosecutrix, by the direction of the defendant, Mayor Cauffiel and at the hands of the other defendant, Doctor Caldwell, was compelled to undergo
The first assignment of error is sustained and the judgment is reversed with a venire facias de novo.
Concurrence Opinion
Concurring Opinion by
While concurring in the reversal of the judgment, and the awarding of a venire facias de novo, upon the ground that the charge of the court below did not submit to the jury the question of the good faith of the defendant, acting as a magistrate, I cannot assent to all that may seem to be implied by the opinion of the majority of the court. The appellant was mayor of the City of Johnstown, Tested with the criminal jurisdiction of an alderman of
“Justices of the peace are not punishable civilly for acts done by them in their judicial capacity, but if they abuse the authority with which they are entrusted, they may be punished criminally at the suit of the king by way of information or indictment, But in cases Where they proceed ministerially rather than judicially, if they act1 corruptly, they are liable to an action at the suit of the party, as well as an information at the suit of the king. The court of king’s bench, however, will never grant an information against a justice of the peace for a mere error in judgment; for even where a justice does an illegal act yet although the judgment was wrong, if his heart was right, if he acted honestly and candidly, without oppression, malice, revenge or any bad favor or
The act with which this defendant was charged was clearly outside the scope of the authority with which he was invested and was in its very nature oppressive. If the jury found that he compelled the young woman to submit to the examination, whether forcibly or under duress of imprisonment, it was entirely competent for the jury to infer, from the character of the act, that the motive was bad, oppressive and a willful abuse of power. This inference was, however, to be drawn by the jury, under proper instructions by the court as to the questions upon which it was their duty to pass.