17 S.D. 629 | S.D. | 1904
This is an appeal from a judgment entered on a verdict of the jury rendered in favor of the defendants. This is the third appeal in this case; the decision of the court in the first appeal being reported in 10 S. D. 484, 74 N. W. 234, and the second in 14 S. D. 126, 84 N. W. 486. The facts are so fully stated in the opinions on those appeals that a very brief statement will suffice for the purposes of this decision.
This is an action by the plaintiff to recover damages for her alleged illegal arrest and imprisonment by one Huston, a deputy sheriff, claimed by the plaintiff to have been made by the order of the defendants, who were the township supervisors and road' overseer. At the time of her arrest the plaintiff resided with her husband upon a farm owned by him in Minnehaha county, on the north line of which, the defendants claim, was a section line highway. The road overseer, under the di
The judgment in favor of the plaintiff on the first appeal was reversed upon the ground that the defendants were not permitted to show their official character and the proceedings attending the transaction, and that they acted in good faith as such officers. On the second appeal the judgment in favor of the plaintiff was reversed by this court for errors occurring at the trial, and which will be further referred to in the course of this opinion, as many of the questions raised on this appeal were settled by that decision, which have become the law of this case. On the third trial, from which this appeal is taken, the judgment was in favor of the defendants; and the plaintiff claims that the court committed error in its charge to the jury, and in its refusal to give instructions requested by the appellant, and that the court erred in admitting in evidence the proceedings of the county commissioners in laying out the road in controversy.
The first contention on the part of the appellant is that the
It is further contended by the appellant that the court erred m admitting the proceedings of the county commissioners, tending to show the establishment of the highway along the line over which the officers were endeavoring to open the same at the time of the arrest of the plaintiff; contending that the highway was on the section line on the north side of the farm owned by her' husband. The defendants claim that the highway was located through the Richardson field, on .what was known as the “Walts Survey,” some 12 rods further south. As held in bur former decision, the issue to be determined was, assuming that the defendants did in fact direct or order
The road overseer was a public officer. State v. Rivers et al., 24 N. W. 260; Woodworth v. State, 26 Ohio St. 196; Tryon v. Pingree, 70 N. W 905, 37 L. R. A. 222, 67, Am. St. Rep. 398; State v. Richardson, 75 Am. Dec. 173. Obstructing him in the performance of his duties as such public officer constitutes a public offense. If there was an attempt to open the road over the land of the Richardsons which had not been legally laid out, or over land which did not legally constitute a highway, they had their remedy in the courts, but they were not authorized to take the law into their own hands and . prevent.the road overseer from performing his duties.
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.