Madden v. Meehan

151 S.W. 681, 151 Ky. 220, 1912 Ky. LEXIS 798
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedDecember 13, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 151 S.W. 681 (Madden v. Meehan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Madden v. Meehan, 151 S.W. 681, 151 Ky. 220, 1912 Ky. LEXIS 798 (Ky. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Settle

Affirming.

This action was brought by the appellant against the appellee, Pat Meehan, a policeman of the city of Louisville, and the sureties in his official bond, to recover damages for his alleged false arrest at the hands of the officer; it being averred in the petition that the arrest was maliciously made, without probable cause and without a warrant, for an alleged misdemeanor, to-wit: Keeping a disorderly house; which was not committed in the officer’s presence and of which appellant was not guilty. On the trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of appellees, upon which judgment in their behalf was properly entered. In due course appellant filed motion and grounds for a new trial, but the motion was overruled and he has appealed.

His first complaint is that the trial court erred to his prejudice in permitting the filing of appellee’s amended answer. The original answer merely traversed the averments of the petition. The amendment denied that appellant was arrested for keeping a disorderly house, and alleged that the arrest was made because of his carrying concealed upon his person a deadly weapon, a pistol; which offense, as further alleged, was committed in the presence of the officer and for that reason that the arrest was legally made by the latter without a warrant.

As the record fails to show that appellant objected to the filing of the amended answer or that he excepted to the order filing it, the objection will not now be considered by us as it cannot be raised for the first time on appeal.

[222]*222It is also insisted for appellant that the trial court should have sustained his demurrer to the answer as amended, and also his written motion to strike from the amended answer certain parts thereof indicated in the motion. As it does not appear from the record that the court ruled either on the demurrer or motion, that it was asked to do so or that an exception was taken to its failure to pass on them, we cannot on this appeal say that its failure to sustain them was error, hut will presume that both were waived by the filing of appellant’s reply.

Appellant’s most serious contention is that neither the answer as amended, nor the evidence introduced in appellee’s behalf, presented a defense to the action; in view of which it is claimed, that the court, instead of instructing the jury as was done, should have submitted the case to them under instructions advising them that the arrest was illegal and defining the measure of damages recoverable.

The record does not contain the evidence introduced on the trial, and, while the instructions that were given, as well as those offered by appellant and refused, are copied in the record, they have not by bill of exceptions filed or approved by the court below, been identified or made a part of the record. This being true it only remains for this court to determine whether the pleadings support the verdict. Martin v. Richardson, 94 Ky., 183; Bibb, &c. v. Miller, &c., 11 Bush, 306.

We think the facts alleged in the amended answer presented a good defense to the action. Stripped of certain redundant expressions and matters of evidence set out in the first paragraph, it, in substance, alleges that the appellee, Meehan, accompanied by one Williams, went in his official capacity, as a 'policeman, to interview appellant with respect to a charge of his maintaining a disorderly house in the city of Louisville, made by Williams, which is an offense under an ordinance of that city; that after finding appellant at or near his home, the officer entered into a conversation with him as to the offense charged, which conversation was prolonged until the parties arrived at a house in the neighborhood, to which they repaired at the officer’s request,' for the purpose of investigating a complaint made of appellant by the resident thereof; that while at this house the discovery was made by the officer that [223]*223appellant had concealed upon his person a pistol, which caused his immediate arrest at the hands of the officer.

It is true that we find it stated in the first paragraph of the amended answer, that the officer, before discovering appellant’s possession of the pistol, had requested him to go to police headquarters with him, to which the latter consented; but it does not. appear from any fact alleged that he had placed him under arrest before the discovery of the pistol. On the contrary, it is distinctly alleged that the officer had not done so and that the discovery by him of the pistol concealed upon appellant’s person, was the sole cause of the arrest.

As, in testing the sufficiency of the amended answer the facts alleged therein should be taken as true, we must conclude that it presents a good defense, and in the absence from the record of the evidence heard on the trial, we must presume that it conduced to sustain the averments of the answer. Carrying concealed a pistol, upon or about one’s person is an offense defined and punished by section 1309, Kentucky Statutes. Section 1310, Kentucky Statutes, makes it the duty of. ministerial officers to apprehend all persons guilty of this offense, and section 1311 provides that any such officer who shall knowingly and wilfully refuse to discharge any of the duties required of him by section 1310, shall, upon indictment and conviction, be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500. As appellant was discovered by Meehan in possession of the pistol concealed upon his person, the latter had the right to arrest him without, a warrant or other process, as the offense was committed in his presence; and, in the absence from the record of a bill of exceptions containing the evidence, we must assume that- it conduced to prove that this was the offense for which he was arrested, and that the arrest without a warrant was authorized because of its commission in the presence of the officer.

• The brief of appellee’s counsel claims for the appellee, Meehan, a right not asserted by the amended answer, that of authority to make an arrest for a misdemeanor without a warrant, even if the offense be not committed in his presence; such power, it is Insisted, being conferred upon police officers of a city of the first class, like Louisville, by section 2885, Kentucky Statutes, which, after generally defining their duties, clothes them with authority.

[224]*224“To repress and restrain all unlawful or disorderly conduct or practices therein; enforce or prevent the violation of all laws and ordinances in force in said city; and for these purposes, with or without a warrant, to arrest all persons guilty of violating any law or ordinance for the suppression of crimes or offenses.”

"We are far from sustaining this contention. Waiving consideration of the question, whether such power as is claimed for the police officer, would amount to a violation of the provisions of section 10, Bill of Rights, Constitution, or those of subsection 29, section 59, or section 60, of that instrument, we are clearly of opinion that it is not conferred by the section of the statute, supra. The authority it gives to make an arrest, “with or without a warrant,” is no greater than that which, from time immemorial, has been exercised by peace officers under the common law.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
151 S.W. 681, 151 Ky. 220, 1912 Ky. LEXIS 798, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/madden-v-meehan-kyctapp-1912.