Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co. v. Henby

97 N.E. 313, 178 Ind. 239, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 95
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 1912
DocketNo. 21,762
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 97 N.E. 313 (Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co. v. Henby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co. v. Henby, 97 N.E. 313, 178 Ind. 239, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 95 (Ind. 1912).

Opinion

Morris, C. J.

Appellee sued appellant for malicious prosecution. There was a trial by jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment against appellant for $10,000. Prom that judgment appellant appeals.

It is, among other things claimed by appellant that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence, because it shows probable cause for the prosecution of the criminal charge, and because appellee is estopped, by her conduct, from claiming damages.

The following facts appear from the record, without substantial controversy: In June, 1904, appellee, a resident of Marion county, sued appellant in the Marion Circuit Court, for damages for alleged injuries sustained by her in a street-ear accident in May of the same year. After the cause was put at issue the venue was changed to the Morgan Circuit Court, where it was first tried in October, 1905. Plaintiff testified in her own behalf. The trial resulted in a disagreement of the jury. ■ Thereupon, on appellant’s motion, the venue was changed to the Hendricks Circuit Court. After[244]*244ward, on December 16, 1905, appellant procured John W. Miller, a constable and news agent, residing in Morgan county, to make an affidavit, in three counts, before the prosecuting attorney of that county, charging that appellee committed the crime of perjury in giving her testimony, in October, in her civil cause. Miller had not heard appellee’s testimony, did not know her, and had never seen her, but signed and swore to the affidavit, wholly on information given him by appellant. Appellant procured the filing of the affidavit in the Morgan Circuit Court. A warrant was issued for the arrest of appellee, and was placed in the hands of the sheriff. Appellant, before the warrant was served, paid the sheriff for expenses of making the arrest. Appellee was arrested at Greenfield, by the Morgan county sheriff, and taken to Martinsville, where she was released from custody on giving bond for her appearance before the circuit court of Morgan county. In March, 1906, the civil action was tried for the second time in the Hendricks Circuit Court. Appellee was again a witness, and testified in her own behalf. While on the witness stand she was asked by counsel for appellant if she had not been arrested on a charge of perjury, still pending, based on her testimony given in the same case at Martinsville, in October, 1905. She was required to answer the question, and replied in the affirmative. In the argument of the cause to the jury, appellant’s counsel asserted that appellee had been arrested for perjury committed on the first trial of the case, and was unworthy of belief, and ought to be in the penitentiary. This second trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for appellant. The charge of perjury against appellee was tried • in October, 1906, in the Morgan Circuit Court. Lawyers, theretofore employed by appellant, appeared with the prosecuting attorney, and, with the latter, represented the State in the trial. They were paid, through appellant’s claim agent, in currency, for their services. The trial resulted in appellee’s acquittal. The counsel employed by appellant [245]*245were Martinsville lawyers, who had not represented appellant in the civil case.

Very soon after the street-car accident, in May, 1904, appellee was taken to an Indianapolis hospital, by the direction of appellant’s claim agent, where she was treated for about three weeks. While there, she suffered from displacement and hemorrhage of the womb, and was sometimes delirious. Subsequently, until June, 1906, appellee suffered greatly from her womb displacement, and her memory was greatly impaired. At the latter time, she went back to the hospital, and underwent a surgical operation for fixation of the womb, and removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes. Doctor Coffin was appellee’s regularly attending physician while she was in the hospital in May, 1904, and continued as such until after the surgical operation in June, 1906. During that time Doctor Best also attended her at intervals.

After the accident, and before the filing of the affidavit for perjury, probably in the fall of 1904, Doctor Coffin informed appellant’s claim agent that appellee’s mind was not sound; but he did not inform appellee’s attorneys of this fact, and was not, on account of illness, present at the first trial of the civil action. No investigation of this information was ever made by appellant.

In appellee’s complaint for personal injuries it was alleged that at the time of the accident, in May, 1904, she was earning from $10 to $12 a week as bookkeeper. At the first trial, in October, 1905, she testified that when injured she was working at the American Metal Works, in Indianapolis, as bookkeeper and file clerk, for wages of $10 a week. This testimony was not true. She was not in the employ of that company in May, 1904, when injured, and had not been employed there after October, 1903, at which time she was employed for about two weeks only, at wages of not more than $7 a week. For more than four months previous to her injury she was employed as a household domestic, in the home of L. G. Richardson, in Indianapolis, and received [246]*246$4.50 a week and her board and washing, the latter item worth from $1 to $1.25 a week.

The second count of the affidavit for perjury was based on appellee’s testimony above set out.

At the trial of the present cause, ten witnesses who resided in the vicinity of Carthage, where appellee was born and reared, testified that her reputation for truth and morality was good. Appellant offered no evidence on the subject.

In each of the trials of appellee’s civil action she was the only witness who testified in her behalf in regard to the particulars of her accident. At the first trial, at Martins-ville, in October, 1905, the president of the American Metal Company testified for appellant that appellee had not been in the employ of that company since October, 1903, and was then employed for less than two weeks at a salary of not more than $7 a week. At the same trial, five witnesses for appellant testified that appellee’s injuries, sued for, were sustained by her in voluntarily alighting from the car while in motion. Appellee’s counsel, in argument, insisted that appellee’s testimony, though contradicted by that of the above five witnesses, was entitled to credit by the jury. At the same trial, Doctor Best testified that certain nerves of appellee were then diseased, and that she would not be better, as to her womb, without an operation.

In the complaint in the present case it is alleged that from May, 1904, when she was injured, until the summer of 1906, when the surgical operation was performed, appellee’s mind was continuously diseased and unsound as a result of her injuries, and that appellant had knowledge of such mental condition during all of said time, and maliciously instituted the criminal prosecution for the sole purpose of defeating her civil action on the second trial thereof.

It is contended by appellant, that in instituting the prosecution it did so under the advice of counsel, in good faith, and that this alone constituted probable cause. There is a conflict in some of the inferences that might be legitimately [247]*247drawn from the evidence on this subject. David E. Watson, a lawyer of Martinsville, was the only witness in regard to this matter, and, among other things, he testified on direct and cross-examination as follows: “My partner, Mr. Me Ginnis, and I were employed by Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
97 N.E. 313, 178 Ind. 239, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 95, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indianapolis-traction-terminal-co-v-henby-ind-1912.