59 A.D.2d 1000 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1977
Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court at Special Term, entered October 29, 1976 in Greene County, which granted a motion by defendant, Town of Hunter, for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. In this action for false arrest and false imprisonment, plaintiffs seek damages arising out of their arrest by the Town of Hunter Police Department on October 5, 1974 for criminal trespass in the third degree, a misdemeanor. They were arrested without a warrant by Police Officer Warren Knaust of the Town of Hunter Police Department on the complaint of defendants, Francis J. Hommel and Anna Beth Hommel, that plaintiffs had broken into their automobile. The plaintiffs were arrested after the Hommels positively identified them as the individuals whom they had accosted in the automobile. The plaintiffs were released from custody several hours after their arrest when two other persons were charged with the crime. When an arrest is made without a warrant, as here, a presumption arises that it was unlawful, and the burden of proving justification is cast upon the defendant (Smith v County of Nassau, 34 NY2d 18). CPL 140.10 provides that a police officer may arrest a person without a warrant when he has "reasonable cause” to believe such person has committed a crime. In Smith v County of Nassau (supra, p 25), the Court of Appeals stated: "In many cases where the victim has made a 'positive identification’, the circumstances may be such as to warrant a court’s finding of reasonable cause as a matter of law”. In our view of this case the circumstances under which the "positive identification” was made supports the court’s finding of reasonable cause as a matter of law. We must distinguish between the