30 N.Y.S. 657 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1894
This was an action for false imprisonment. The defendant, a police captain in the city of Buffalo, was called by telephone on the night of the 13th of April, 1893, to go to the Iroquois Hotel in the city of Buffalo. On his arrival at that place he had conversation with a couple of men who had caused him to be sent for, as the result of which he arrested the plaintiff without warrant, upon the charge of obtaining money by false pretenses. The arrest was made late at night of Thursday, or early in the morning of Friday. It appears from the testimony that after making the arrest the defendant took the plaintiff to the station house and caused him to be confined. On Friday the plaintiff was taken by the defendant into the court room, but the attention of the police magistrate was not called to the plaintiff’s case, it appearing that nobody was there to make a complaint. After
Upon the trial the question was submitted to the jury, whether the defendant, being an officer, had reasonable ground to believe, at the time he arrested the plaintiff, that a felony had been committed, and they were told that if he had such grounds and made the arrest, believing that the plaintiff was guilty of a felony, the arrest was justifiable. They were then told that, if the arrest was justifiable, it was the duty of the officer to take the person arrested, without unnecessary delay, before a magistrate that he might be arraigned, or put upon his examination. They were told that if the person who-makes the arrest did not take the party arrested before an officer, without unnecessary delay, but held him without warrant from a magistrate for an- unnecessarily long time, and then let him go without any direction, the law would say, not only that he went beyond the powers which the law gave him by way of holding the man at the time he made the-arrest, but that he was a trespasser from the beginning, and the illegal act which he did by holding him longer than he had the right to hold him was deemed to revert back to the time of making the arrest and the whole thing was illegal from the beginning. The jury were then told that although they might come to the conclusion that the officer was justified in arresting the plaintiff, that they must go further in the examination of the case and satisfy themselves whether it appeared that, after the arrest was made and the man in cus
That exception raises the only question of law sought to be presented upon this motion.
That it was the duty of the defendant, having arrested this man, to take him without unnecessary delay before a magisstrate, cannot be denied. Code Grim. Proc. § 165. ' That no such thing was done, but that the plaintiff was held in custody without warrant, without arraignment or without any direction of a magistrate, from Friday until Monday, not only clearly appears but is conceded. The only question is, then, whether, because of that illegal detention, the defendant became a trespasser from the beginning, so that the fact that the arrest might have been originally legal was no protection to him in this action. The rule laid down in the Six Carpenters case, 6 Coke, 146, that if a man abuse an authority given him by the law he becomes a trespasser ab initio, has never been questioned. Indeed, the rule is not questioned in this motion, but the suggestion is made by the counsel for the defendant that this rule does not apply to the case of an arrest,
The defendant insists that although there may have been no error which would warrant the granting df a new trial, yet
It is undisputed that the plaintiff was arrested in a public place, in the city of Buffalo, late in the evening of Thursday; that he was taken to the jDolice station and there confined, without any warrant and without any process, until the following Monday, when he was permitted to depart. There was no proof of any indignity offered to the plaintiff, and nothing from which it can be inferred that any humiliation was put upon him, except such as would necessarily follow the arrest of a reputable man upon such a charge, and the long detention. Ror can it be said that there were any circumstances of especial pecuniary damage shown. . The jury may have found from the evidence, and it must be assumed upon this branch of the motion that they did find, that the arrest was totally unjustifiable, because there was evidence to contradict seriously the testimony of the defendant that he was requested to make any arrest or that any complaint was made to him that the plaintiff had been guilty of any crime. If they took, that view of the case, as they well might, there was good ffeason why they should give a verdict for considerable damages. The evidence warranted them in saying that the act of the defendant was high handed and unjustifiable. Where an officer of the law under those circumstances arrests a reputable citizen and confines him for a considerable time without process, it must rest largely in the discretion of the jury how large a sum they will assess as damages for such an injury. The amount fixed by the jury in this case was probably larger than would have been given by the court, but the jury are the tribunal especially charged with the decision of questions involving the amount of damages, and no court is at liberty to interfere with their decision unless there is a plain abuse of their discretion.
The liberty of a citizen is a matter of pretty considerable importance, and it is not easy to say that such a sum as was given here is too great an amount to compensate a man for the arrest and detention to which this plaintiff was subjected.
Motion dismissed.