Casserly v. Wheeler

282 F. 389
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 7, 1932
DocketNo. 3772
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 282 F. 389 (Casserly v. Wheeler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Casserly v. Wheeler, 282 F. 389 (9th Cir. 1932).

Opinion

MORROW, Circuit Judge.

The parties to this action will be designated plaintiff and defendant, as in the court below.

The plaintiff below was, in September, 1918, registered under the Selective Service Act (Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 2044a-2044k) with the local board at Seattle, state of Washington, and was given a deferred classification as a mariner. He moved to San Francisco, secured employment as a mariner with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and on September 18, 1918, under the instructions of an officer of that company, he went before the San Francisco local board No. 1 to obtain a permit to enable him to go to sea. He already had a passport.

The defendant was the only member of the board present. Plaintiff submitted to him his registration and classification cards. Defendant directed the plaintiff to send a telegram to the Seattle board, requesting the granting of the necessary permission to go to sea. The plaintiff sent such a telegram from the Western Union office on Powell street.

When the plaintiff appeared at the Western Union office with the telegram, one of the clerks, Gertrude R. Smith, noticed the character of the telegram, and thought she recognized in plaintiff another person by the name of Nolan, who was wanted for some offense, and, believing that he was endeavoring to obtain a passport under an assumed name to go to sea and avoid service in the War, thus violating the Selective Service Act, she reported the matter to her superiors, who, in turn, instructed her- to communicate with the Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, in the Federal Building, which she did.

The Department of Justice, through Mr. H. H. Dolly, special agent of the bureau, then notified the defendant by telephone that, when plaintiff called for a reply to the Seattle telegram, defendant should hold him. It being after 5 o’clock’ and after office hours when plaintiff appeared, the regular police officer detailed to the draft board was not there. The defendant requested plaintiff to wait a few minutes. After waiting about 10 minutes, plaintiff advanced toward the door of the room in which he had been sitting to step outside, when defendant blocked the way, saying, “I will have to detain you here.” The defendant had, during the wait, telephoned to a San Francisco police station, requesting that two policemen be sent to the office of the board to malee an arrest. In response to this request, two officers came, and defendant indicating that the plaintiff was the person to be arrested, he was arrested and taken to the city prison, where he was locked up over night.

[391]*391The defendant testified that he made the arrest as a member of the draft board; that he simply followed telephone instructions from Mr. Dolly, the special agent of the Department of Justice.

The plaintiff testified that he attempted to question the defendant as to what he was charged with; as to whether he could telephone to his relatives and an attorney, and whether he could give bail; that the defendant gave him absolutely no satisfaction and made no inquiries as to his identity; that the plaintiff could have identified himself positively in a few minutes by communicating with his employer, or his friends in San Francisco, or his relatives, his sister being at the time a teacher in the Alameda High School and his mother and sister residents of Alameda county. He asked the police officers upon what charge he was being taken. He persisted in the inquiry, and the officers told him:

“We can tell you nothing about it. You will have to mate further inquiry when we get down to the station.”

Plaintiff had in his possession at the time his identification papers, which consisted of a seaman’s passport, a waterfront passport, and two registration cards. The latter he had submitted to the defendant when he applied for the permission to go to sea. At the police station plaintiff asked if there was any charge against him. They said, “Well, you cannot find out anything of that kind here”—or words substantially to that effect.

The following morning the plaintiff was taken out by one o£ the representatives of the Bureau of Investigation, who, after lengthy questioning, became satisfied that a mistake' had been made, and released the plaintiff between 3:30 and 4:30 that afternoon, who thereafter appeared before the local board, secured his permit, and departed. He had been under arrest about 22 hours.

The plaintiff, on September 11, 1919, filed a complaint against the defendant in the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco, claiming damages against him in the sum of $10,000 for false imprisonment. Thereafter the cause was removed to the District Court of the United States in and for the Northern District of California. A trial was had before the court and a jury, and at the close of the trial the court gave to the jury an instruction for a verdict in favor of plaintiff in some amount, submitting to the jury the single question as to the amount of damages. Such a verdict was returned, awarding plaintiff the sum of $750 as damages for such false imprisonment, and judgment was entered thereon in favor of the plaintiff.

Defendant prosecutes this writ of error to reverse that judgmént, claiming that the court erred in so instructing the jury.

It is obvious from the record of proceedings that the. instruction of the court to the jury that they must find for the plaintiff in some amount was given with deliberation, and not inadvertently. We shall therefore treat the general exception to the charge of the court as sufficient in this case to bring that question before this court for review.

[392]*392The defendant, represented by the United States attorney, contends that the case is governed by the Selective Service Act, entitled “An act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the military establishment of the United States,” approved May 18, 1917 (40 Stat. 76). The act provides, in section 1 (Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St.. Ann. Supp. 1919, § 2044a), that “in view of the existing emergency, which demands the raising of troops in addition to those now available, the President * * * is * * * authorized” among other things to select and mobilize a national army (section 2 [section 2044b]) “by voluntary enlistment, or if and whenever the President decides that they cannot be effectually so raised or maintained, then by selective draft. * * * Such draft as herein provided shall be based upon liability to military service of all male citizens, or male persons not alien enemies who have declared their intention to become citizens, between the ages of twenty-one and thirty years, both inclusive, and shall take place and be maintained under such regulations as the President may prescribe not inconsistent with the terms of this act.”

Among the regulations prescribed by the President for the raising of this army were regulations providing for the registration (section 53) and classification (section 70) of all persons subject to registration. The classification was to be in five classes, in accordance with the economic interests of the nation. In the fourth class (section 78) were to be placed registrants found to be mariners, actually employed in the sea service. The plaintiff was registered with the local registration board at Seattle. He did not claim exemption. He was about 22 years of age and registered as a mariner, and classified and recorded in class 4. His employment brought him to San Francisco.

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Related

James Vernon Ward v. United States
316 F.2d 113 (Ninth Circuit, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
282 F. 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/casserly-v-wheeler-ca9-1932.