57 Ga. App. 427 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1938
In the petition of Lloyd Stone, in a suit against National Surety Corporation, to. recover against the defendant on the official bond executed by it as surety for W. 0. Parker as principal, to the commissioner of roads and revenues of DeKalb County, Georgia, in the penal sum of $1000, conditioned on the performance by W. 0. Parker of the duties of his official position as chief of police, the execution of the bond is alleged, and it is alleged that the principal, W. O. Parker, was, on June 26, 1935, and at all times thereafter referred to in the petition, the chief of police of DeKalb County, Georgia, and as such had
Regardless of whatever responsibility for an illegal detention or a false imprisonment which may rest upon a person actually holding another in illegal confinement, a person who does not have actual custody of the person detained but who instigated the unlawful detention and commanded it to be done and controls the
It nowhere appears from the petition whether the plaintiff was arrested and held in custody by virtue of a criminal warrant, or without a warrant. In 25 C. J. 491 it is stated: “One making an arrest may be liable in an action for false imprisonment where he fails to take the person arrested before the officer designated in the warrant, or, if the arrest is made without warrant, to the nearest committing magistrate, or other officer designated by law.” If, however, the plaintiff was arrested by W. O. Parker, chief of police, etc., under a criminal warrant authorizing the arrest, and the officer had him in custody, the officer was under a duty, in the exer-. cise of reasonable diligence, to carry the plaintiff before a committing magistrate for the purpose of an investigation of the charges against him and a determination of whether or not the plaintiff should be discharged or committed. It is provided in the Code, § 27-210, that when an officer makes an arrest under a warrant it is his duty to “exercise reasonable diligence in bringing the person arrested before the person authorized to examine, commit, or receive bail.” It appearing from the allegations of the petition that "VV. 0. Parker, chief of police, etc., was requested by the
The cases of Page v. Citizens Banking Co., 111 Ga. 73 (7) (36 S. E. 418, 51 L. R. A. 463, 78 Am. St. R. 144), and Joiner v. Ocean Steamship Co., 86 Ga. 238 (12 S. E. 361), wherein it was held that an imprisonment resulting from an arrest under a valid warrant gives no right of action for 'false imprisonment, are distinguishable. In those cases there was nothing tending to show that an imprisonment which was the result of a valid warrant became converted into a false and illegal detention and imprisonment by any subsequent happenings or events, such as in the case now before the court, where, as appears from the allegations in the petition, the officer having the plaintiff in custody failed to exercise reasonable diligence in bringing him before a magistrate authorized to investigate charges and to permit or receive bail, but held him in custody for a considerable period of time after he had made demand upon the person causing his arrest and having him in custody, to take him before a "justice of the peace in order that
The petition set out a cause of action and the court erred in sustaining the general demurrer to the petition in the suit against the officer’s official bondsman.
Judgment reversed,.