Harris v. Boone

519 So. 2d 1065, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 279, 1988 Fla. App. LEXIS 409, 1988 WL 6395
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 27, 1988
DocketNo. BR-89
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 519 So. 2d 1065 (Harris v. Boone) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harris v. Boone, 519 So. 2d 1065, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 279, 1988 Fla. App. LEXIS 409, 1988 WL 6395 (Fla. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

JOANOS, Judge.

Appellant Jessie Mae Harris appeals the final summary judgment entered in favor of Sheriff Eddie Boone, defendant in Harris’s suit for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. The issues for our review are: (1) whether there exist genuine issues of material fact with respect to probable cause to arrest, (2) whether appellant was afforded an opportunity to be heard on the issue of probable cause, and (3) whether it was error to deny appellant’s motion to strike the sheriff’s renewed motion for summary judgment. We affirm in part, and reverse in part.

On April 5, 1982, appellant filed a two-count complaint against appellee in his capacity as Sheriff of Leon County, alleging malicious prosecution as to Count I, and false imprisonment as to Count II. On April 7, 1982, appellee filed an answer and affirmative defenses, together with a motion for summary judgment. Appended to the motion for summary judgment were copies of the arresting deputy’s probable cause affidavit and the warrant for appellant’s arrest. Appellee’s motion for summary judgment, which expressly relied upon the rule enunciated in Gallucci v. Milavic, 100 So.2d 375 (Fla.1958), was predicated on the judicial determination of probable cause as a bar to appellant’s action for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. In addition, appellee filed the February 27, 1981, deposition of the arresting deputy. This deposition had been taken in conjunction with the criminal proceedings which formed the basis for the lawsuit here on appeal.1

On May 3, 1982, appellant filed the arresting deputy’s April 1982 deposition, together with a request for admission of authenticity of an intraoffice memorandum, dated November 9, 1981, from the arresting deputy to one of his superiors. The subject of the memorandum was appellant’s intention to file a claim against the sheriff.

On May 17, 1982, the trial court granted appellee’s motion for summary judgment. However, on May 18, 1982, the trial court withdrew the summary judgment entered the day before. On reconsideration, the trial court found since there was a question whether the probable cause determination had been based on perjury, there existed a genuine issue of material fact which precluded summary judgment.

The case against appellee lay dormant during the pendency of the appellate proceedings between appellant and Lewis State Bank.2 On June 4, 1986, after this court issued its mandate in the Lewis State Bank case, appellee filed a renewed motion for summary judgment, again attaching [1067]*1067copies of the probable cause affidavit and warrant, and asserting the same principle of law relied upon in the first motion, that is, the Gallucci conclusive presumption of probable cause attendant upon a magistrate’s finding of probable cause.

After the Florida Supreme Court denied Lewis State Bank’s petition to review Harris v. Lewis State Bank, 482 So.2d 1378 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986), appellant filed a motion to strike the renewed motion for summary judgment on grounds of redundancy —maintaining the same motion based on the same facts and law had been denied previously. Appellant’s motion to strike included a request for costs and attorney’s fees, pursuant to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1.510(g).3

On September 22, 1986, the trial court heard arguments on the motions. Thereafter, on November 13,1986, the trial court entered final summary judgment in favor of appellee.

To prevail in a suit for malicious prosecution, a plaintiff must show: (1) the commencement or continuance of an original criminal or civil judicial proceeding, (2) the defendant was the legal cause of the judicial proceeding, (3) the termination of the judicial proceeding in plaintiff’s favor, (4) the absence of probable cause for the proceeding, (5) the presence of malice, and (6) resulting damage to the plaintiff. Burns v. GCC Beverages, Inc., 502 So.2d 1217, 1218 (Fla.1987), and cases cited therein. To prevail, it is incumbent upon a plaintiff to prove an absence of probable cause.

It is now well settled that a magistrate’s determination of probable cause to issue an arrest warrant is not a conclusive presumption of probable cause, unless the probable cause determination was based upon an adversary hearing and there was no evidence of fraud or other improper means in securing the warrant. Burns v. GCC Beverages, Inc., 502 So.2d 1217 (Fla.1987). Gallucci v. Milavic, 100 So.2d 375 (Fla.1958), is the seminal case on the probable cause presumption. In Gallucci, the supreme court held that in a malicious prosecution action a magistrate’s finding of probable cause after an adversary hearing is a conclusive presumption of probable cause which will bar the subsequent suit, absent fraud or other corrupt means in the procurement of the warrant. Gallucci was reaffirmed by the supreme court in Burns v. GCC Beverages (Burns II), which approved the result reached in this court’s en banc opinion in Burns I, which appears at 469 So.2d 806 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985), but disapproved the underlying rationale.

The supreme court explained that in Gal-lucci, unlike the situation which obtained in Burns, the accused was given the opportunity to refute the allegations supporting probable cause. The court further observed that a correct statement of the law appears in Pinkerton v. Edwards, 425 So. 2d 147, 149 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), wherein this court held that—

because a Gallucci probable cause hearing permits both parties to present evidence on the issue of probable cause and to have the evidence considered by a neutral and disinterested magistrate, a finding of probable cause by the magistrate creates a presumption of probable cause which serves to shield prosecution, absent a showing of fraud or other improper behavior by the accuser. (Emphasis in the original).

The court recognized the public policy need to balance the competing interests of the individual to be protected from unwarranted criminal prosecution against the need of society to protect those who act in good faith to prosecute persons apparently guilty of crime. In other words, the mere issuance of a warrant ought not be taken as proof of the reasonableness of the prose[1068]*1068cution.4 Accordingly, the court held that “the issuance of an arrest warrant by a magistrate establishes a presumption of probable cause for purposes of an action for malicious prosecution only if the defendant had the opportunity to be heard by the magistrate on the issue of probable cause.” Burns II, 502 So.2d at 1220. See also Rotte v. City of Jacksonville, 509 So.2d 1252 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987).

In the instant case, the trial court’s order on the renewed motion for summary judgment relied on this court’s opinions in Bums I and Martinez v. West, 470 So.2d 872 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). The Martinez opinion expressly adopted the Bums I reasoning as governing. The supreme court’s opinion disapproving the rationale applied by this court in Bums I was released some two months after entry of the order granting final summary judgment in this case. Therefore, the trial court did not have the benefit of the supreme court’s explication of the Gallucci

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Bluebook (online)
519 So. 2d 1065, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 279, 1988 Fla. App. LEXIS 409, 1988 WL 6395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-boone-fladistctapp-1988.