Pandjiris v. Hartman

94 S.W. 270, 196 Mo. 539, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 226
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 30, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 94 S.W. 270 (Pandjiris v. Hartman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pandjiris v. Hartman, 94 S.W. 270, 196 Mo. 539, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 226 (Mo. 1906).

Opinion

VALLIANT, J.

for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment. The statements in the petition are to the effect that at the request and instigation of the defendant the plaintiff was arrested, imprisoned and held in confinement for a period of eighteen hours “without reasonable cause and without right of authority to do so and against the will of this plaintiff.” The answer was a general denial.

[543]*543The evidence on the part of the plaintiff tended to show as follows:

The plaintiff had been the owner of a candy store and was indebted to the defendant in the snm of $1,200, for which defendant held plaintiff’s notes, with certain securities. Plaintiff owed some other debts and the financial conditions not being entirely satisfactory the plaintiff made a bill of sale of the whole establishment to defendant, put the defendant in formal possession and his name on the sign in the place of plaintiff’s. Plaintiff in his testimony claimed that the transaction was only a conditional sale under which the business was to be run in defendant’s name until he could get the money due him and then to be returned to plaintiff, but that it took the form of an absolute sale because defendant’s attorney said it was the only way a valid transaction of that kind could be made. After the execution of this bill of sale and the ostensible transfer of the business, defendant still retained the securities he held for his $1,200 notes. Plaintiff remained (as he claimed, in charge as owner; as defendant claimed, as employee) in the establishment and collected money in the business. On February 6, 1903, a dispute arose between them about an item of $5.30 which plaintiff had collected that.day, and other items amounting to $38 previously collected; plaintiff refused to turn over the money demanded and defendant called in á police officer and told him that plaintiff had committed grand larceny and requested him to arrest the plaintiff which the officer did and further requested the officer to take the plaintiff to the prison and “lock him up” which the officer also did. Defendant went with the officer to the prison and promised the sergeant of police in charge of the station that he would sue out a warrant the next morning. Plaintiff was taken to prison and incarcerated about 5 o ’clock in the afternoon and held until 11 o’clock the next morning; on that morning defendant applied for a warrant, but the [544]*544prosecuting attorney refused it. When plaintiff was brought before the sergeant of police at the Four Courts, he admitted that he had collected the money but claimed that it was his money. When the sergeant was informed that the application for a warrant had been denied he discharged the plaintiff.

The substance of the testimony for the defendant was that the sale was absolute and bona fide, that plaintiff was only an employee and as such had collected the money in dispute and converted it to his own use. That on the morning in question when defendant demanded the money, plaintiff refused; defendant ordered him to leave the store, which he also refused to do; then defendant called in the policeman, told him that the plaintiff was- a trespasser in his store, and had taken $5.30. “I ordered the officer to do his duty; he arrested him, and I accompanied them to the Four Courts. I told the man in charge that he had taken the money, $5.30, and that he refused to return it.” The foregoing is a very brief statement of the facts shown by the evidence in the case, but it is sufficient for an understanding of the law questions involved.

Plaintiff asked three instructions to the following effect:

1. If the defendant caused the plaintiff to be arrested and imprisoned, without process of law, and against plaintiff’s will and so held for a period of eighteen hours, the jury should find for the plaintiff, “and assess his damages in such sum as they believe from the evidence he ought to recover, not exceeding the sum of ten thousand dollars, the amount sued for in the petition.”

2. If the plaintiff was restrained of his liberty at the instance of the defendant without authority or process of law; then in arriving at a verdict the jury should disregard the evidence offered by defendant tending to prove probable cause and want of malice.

3. If the plaintiff “was restrained of his liberty [545]*545at the instance of defendant as charged in the petition,” then it was not necessary for the plaintiff to prove malice or want of probable cause.

Those instructions were refused and exceptions taken.

At the request of defendant the court gave three instructions to the effect as follows:

1. If the jury should find for the plaintiff he could recover only the actual damages he sustained and was not entitled to punitive damages.

2. If the store belonged to defendant, and he ordered the plaintiff to leave it and plaintiff refused and thereupon defendant requested the officer to arrest him and he was so arrested, the plaintiff was not entitled to recover.

3. If defendant was the owner of the store, the plaintiff only an employee, and the plaintiff as employee collected $5 or $30 or any other sum or sums belonging to defendant, refused to pay the same over to defendant but converted the same to his own use, then defendant had a right to order his arrest and the plaintiff cannot recover.

There was a verdict for the defendant and judgment accordingly from which the plaintiff has appealed.

The difference between an unlawful arrest or false imprisonment and a malicious prosecution is this: The wrongdoer in making the unlawful arrest, or causing it to be done, takes the law in his own hands and acts without a warrant from a court or magistrate, while the man who instigates a malicious prosecution puts the machinery of the criminal law into operation, causing a warrant to issue and the arrest under the warrant.

It is the right and privilege of any citizen knowing that one has committed or is in the act of committing a crime to arrest the offender or cause him to be arrested without waiting for a warrant, but in doing so [546]*546the unofficial citizen takes this risk, to-wit, if it should turn out that the man whom he has arrested was not guilty'of the crime, the citizen causing the arrest is liable in a civil action for whatever damages the arrested man sustained in consequence of his- arrest and imprisonment." In such case it is no answer to the plaintiff’s demand for damages for the defendant to say I had reasonable cause to believe the plaintiff was guilty; I acted without malice, I took the advice of counsel learned in the law. The only plea of justification or excuse is that plaintiff was guilty of the crime for which he was arrested. [Ahern v. Collins, 39 Mo. 150; Boeger v. Langenberg, 97 Mo. 390.]

But in an action for malicious prosecution, though it should turn out that the plaintiff was not really guilty of the crime charged, yet if the defendant in putting the machinery of the law into operation acted in good faith, without malice, with reasonable cause to believe the plaintiff guilty and on the advice of counsel to whom all the facts were disclosed, he would not be liable.

The facts of this case illustrate the reason of the law for holding a defendant to a more strict responsibility in the one case than the other.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Deborah Barkley v. McKeever Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Price Chopper
456 S.W.3d 829 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 2015)
Carverton v. J.C. Penney Co.
651 S.W.2d 608 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
Helming v. Adams
509 S.W.2d 159 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1974)
Eric L. Montgomery v. United States
403 F.2d 605 (Eighth Circuit, 1968)
Nelson v. R. H. MacY & Co.
434 S.W.2d 767 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1968)
Wehrman v. Liberty Petroleum Company
382 S.W.2d 56 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1964)
State v. Parker
378 S.W.2d 274 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1964)
Aley v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.
211 F. Supp. 500 (W.D. Missouri, 1962)
Frank v. Wabash Railroad Company
295 S.W.2d 16 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1956)
State v. Brinkley
189 S.W.2d 314 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1945)
Engelbrecht v. Roworth
157 S.W.2d 242 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1942)
Teel v. May Department Stores Co.
155 S.W.2d 74 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1941)
McGill v. Walnut Realty Co.
148 S.W.2d 131 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1941)
Titus v. Montgomery Ward & Co.
123 S.W.2d 574 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1938)
Collyer v. S. H. Kress & Co.
54 P.2d 20 (California Supreme Court, 1936)
Pine v. Okzewski
170 A. 825 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1934)
Burton v. Drennan
58 S.W.2d 740 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1933)
Hammond v. Otwell
154 S.E. 357 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1930)
Peterson v. Fleming
297 S.W. 163 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1927)
State v. Grubbs
289 S.W. 852 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 S.W. 270, 196 Mo. 539, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pandjiris-v-hartman-mo-1906.