Kredit v. Ryan

1 N.W.2d 813, 68 S.D. 274, 1942 S.D. LEXIS 27
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 2, 1942
DocketFile No. 8437.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1 N.W.2d 813 (Kredit v. Ryan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kredit v. Ryan, 1 N.W.2d 813, 68 S.D. 274, 1942 S.D. LEXIS 27 (S.D. 1942).

Opinion

WARREN, J.

The plaintiff brought an action to recover damages for false imprisonment. In her complaint she also included claims for damages based on other matters. At the beginning of the trial, the claims in the complaint were narrowed down to false imprisonment. Plaintiff, who was a practical nurse, brought suit against the defendants, R. W. Reid, a rurai route mail carrier, Noah Ortman, one of the proprietors of a clinic, Ed Klinkel, manager of the hotel connected with the Canistota clinic (these three defendants lived at Canistota, South Dakota) Joe E. Ryan, as sheriff of McCook County, South Dakota, and the American Surety Company, which was surety on the sheriffs bond.

It would appear that plaintiff and defendant Reid had had an altercation in regard to the possession of a room in a boarding house in Canistota, South Dakota. Reid and his eight year old son were living at the boarding house. Reid feared plaintiff would injure his small boy, who was obliged to remain alone while Reid was away on the mail route, on account of certain threats made by plaintiff which took place during an altercation in which he says that she referred to Reid’s occupancy of the room saying: “Don’t think you are going to get away with it; I will get even with you.” The plaintiff denies that she was guilty of ever making a *276 threat against the defendant Reid. An attorney in Canistota, South Dakota, was consulted who advised him as to his rights to institute proceedings to require plaintiff to give security to keep the peace. In company with this attorney, he narrated the facts to a Justice of the Peace concerning the trouble and altercation with the plaintiff. The' attorney, it would seem, prepared the complaint which was signed by Reid. A warrant was signed and issued by the Justice of the Peace and placed in the hands of Sheriff Ryan who after-wards made the arrest. The record contains evidence to the effect that she resisted arrest; that her conversation, behavior and action seemed strange to the sheriff to the extent that he thought she was mentally unbalanced or insane. Plaintiff was placed in the women’s ward of the McCook County jail where she remained until the following afternoon. It would seem that the arrest was made in the early evening and that the Justice of the Peace was out of town and unavailable.

The record contains evidence to the effect that plaintiff repeatedly told the defendant sheriff that she did not want to be taken into court or before the Justice of the Peace. After arriving at Salem, South Dakota, the defendant sheriff at the plaintiff’s request put in a telephone call to her brothers in order that she might consult with them about her trouble. This is all denied by the plaintiff. Her brothers arrived the following day. Plaintiff repeated her request that she be released and not taken before the Justice of the Peace. After repeated requests of plaintiff and her brothers, who agreed to care for her, the sheriff released her and took no further proceedings under the complaint and the warrant issued by the Justice of the Peace.

The court directed verdicts in favor of the three defendants, R. W. Reid, Noah Ortman and Ed Klinkel. Upon trial of the other two defendants, the jury returned a verdict finding all the issues in favor of the defendants, Joe E. Ryan and American Surety Company of New York.

A motion for new trial was made and overruled by the court. Plaintiff has appealed from the judgment and order overruling a motion for a new trial.

*277 Appellant contends that the jury being guilty of misconduct, a fair and due consideration of the case was prevented by reason of certain statements made by Juror Charles Erickson, who, it is claimed, disregarded the injunction of the court to not talk to anyone about the case until it had been finally submitted. He nevertheless made a statement, it is contended in an affidavit of Juror Hugo Mayer, to the effect that Ryan had to take Dorothy Kredit by force and that he was doing his duty when he put the “come along” on her wrist because she would not come with him. Juror Mayer, in an affidavit, states that after the case was finally submitted to the jury, Juror Erickson stated in effect: “That he knew all about Dorothy Kredit; that his wife had told him Miss Kredit was a ‘cat’; that she was just after the money and that he wouldn’t give her anything.”

Said Juror Mayer further stated that certain statements influenced his verdict and he thinks that certain statements influenced other jurors in the verdict. There are affidavits by five other jurors, each of said affidavits contains a statement to the effect that Charles Erickson, at the time of deliberating in the jury room, stated to them the portion of Juror Mayer’s affidavit last above quoted!

We need not review the authorities of early Dakota territorial days to the present time to the effect that affidavits of jurors cannot be used to impeach their verdict for the reason that appellant in her brief states that she is not unmindful of that general rule of law. It is urged that if this is an exclusion ruling, then how may the fact that jurors received important evidence out of court be brought to the attention of the court. Juror Erickson was permitted to sit on the jury after he had answered the questions asked him concerning his knowledge of the appellant to which he had replied that he did not know her and that he had not heard anything about her case; that no one h‘ad talked to him, and that, if anybody did talk to him about the case, he would not be influenced or governed by it; that he was not prejudiced and would act fairly and impartially. Appellant, having discovered that this juror had made certain remarks in *278 the jury room which she claims amounted to giving evidence before the jury, charges that it does not fall within the rules announced by this court, in a long unbroken line of authorities, that affidavits of jurors can not be used to impeach their verdict. In support thereof, authorities have been cited among which is Slater v. United Traction Co., 172 App. Div. 404, 157 N. Y. S. 909. An examination of this case shows that it is easily distinguishable from the facts which we are dealing with. Space forbids making a lengthy analysis.

In Hansen v. Muller, 65 S. D. 546, 276 N. W. 150, this court sustained the lower court in granting a new trial upon certain nonjurors’ affidavits setting out specific acts of misconduct presented to the trial court on a motion for new trial. The jurors involved filed counter affidavits. In the instant case, we are dealing with affidavits given by jurors. In the Hansen v. Muller, supra, this court dealt with affidavits given by outsiders, not jurors, who related facts pertaining to the trial while the jurors made affidavits in substance denying that they had made certain statements to the outsiders. Therefore, a far different question was decided in that case than we are asked to decide in the instant case. We are asked to receive and consider the affidavits of jurors, which in effect amounts to deciding that jurors can, by their affidavits, impeach their verdict. This would be contrary to a long-established line of authorities by this court and other courts. State v. Corner et al. 58 S. D. 579, 237 N. W. 912 and Saunders v. Farmers’ & Merchants’ National Bank of Milbank et al., 61 S. D. 261, 248 N. W. 250.

In Carpenter v. Union Baking Co., 67 S.D. 151, 290 N.W.

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Bluebook (online)
1 N.W.2d 813, 68 S.D. 274, 1942 S.D. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kredit-v-ryan-sd-1942.