Ross v. Kohler

174 S.W. 36, 163 Ky. 583, 1915 Ky. LEXIS 282
Court of Appeals of Kentucky·Decided March 17, 1915·Published·Cited by 21 cases

Opinion

OPINION op the Court by

Judge Hurt

Reversing.

The appellant, Marie Ross (nee Bontellier), was a girl, seventeen years of age, and the daughter of a respectable family, who lived on Milton Avenue, in Louisville, Kentucky, at the time of the event, hereinafter, related. She brought this suit in the Jefferson Circuit Court against the appellee, Robert J. Kohler, and the surety upon his official bond, Georgia Insurance Company. The appellee, Kohler, was a lieutenant of police in the city of Louisville.

The appellant, by her petition and amended petition, complains that about the 20th day of March, 1913, the appellee forcibly and wrongfully arrested her, and compelled her against her will, to go with him in an automobile to the city hall, and there delivered her into the custody of other persons, who displayed firearms before her in a very menacing way, and quizzed her very offensively; that she had. not been guilty of any kind of an offense for which she might be lawfully arrested, and that the appellee did not have any warrant for her arrest, nor reasonable grounds for believing her to have committed a felony, and that she had not been guilty of any misdemeanor, or any infraction of the ordinances of the city in his presence. The appellees answered, traversing the allegations as to damages suffered by her and denied that she was wrongfully arrested, or wrongfully required to accompany the officers against her will from her home to the city hall, but the answer failed to deny that the appellee did arrest her, or did compel her-to go with him to the city hall against her will. Upon a trial the jury found a verdict for the appellant in the [586] sum of $750.00 in damages. The appellees filed grounds for a new trial. In the grounds for a new trial, they complained that the court was in error to their prejudice, by permitting, over their objection, proof to be made by appellant of what occurred in the city hall after she arrived there, and when Kohler was not present; and, also, complained of the verdict being excessive; and of misconduct of the counsel for appellant upon the trial. The circuit court sustained the motion to set aside the verdict of the jury, and granted a new trial upon the sole ground, that it was in error in admitting the evidence for appellant complained of, and that without that evidence, the verdict was excessive. This trial occurred in March, and the new trial was granted on the 18th day of April. The appellant excepted to the rulings of the court granting a new trial, and prayed an appeal to this court. On the 8th day of June 'the case came on ag'ain for trial, and resulted in a verdict of the jury for one cent in damages in favor of the appellant, and judgment was rendered accordingly. The appellant then filed grounds and moved the court to grant her a new trial and to set aside the last judgment, and to substitute and enter for it the first judgment in the case. The grounds relied upon by appellant for a new trial were, that the court erred in refusing to allow the appellant to make proof of the occurrences at the city hall when, Kohler was not present; and because of the admission, over her objection, of incompetent testimony offered by the appellee ; and refusing to instruct the jury as set out in an instruction that was offered, marked “A;” and because the court erred in instructing the jury; and that the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence. The court overruled her motion for a new trial, and to this she excepted. The court, also, overruled her motion to enter the judgment rendered upon the first trial as the judgment of the court, or to set aside the order granting a new trial, after the first judgment. To these rulings she also excepted, and now appeals to this court.

The instructions of the court given upon the last trial are the same as those given upon the first trial, to which no objection was made by the appellant at their giving upon the first or last trial. Not having made any objection to the instructions given, until the motion for a new trial, the appellant cannot now complain of the instructions which were given by the court, and besides, [587] the instructions seem to fairly present the issues raised in the evidence, and upon the pleadings, and the measure of damages fixed by the instructions seems to he correct.

Upon both trials the verdict of the-, jury has been to the effect, that the appellant was arrested by the appellee without right, and forcibly and against her will, she was required to accompany him to the city hall, and besides, as above mentioned, by his answer, he fails to deny that he did either of these things. We are, however, of the opinion, that the court below was in error upon the last trial, when it excluded from the consideration of the jury, over the objection of the appellant, evidence relating to the things which occurred at the city hall after appellant arrived there, and before she was permitted to leave. For the purpose of determining the correctness of this ruling, as well as others in the case, it will be necessary to give a short statement of the facts which the evidence conduces to prove. The evidence upon each trial was substantially the same, except in the last trial, the evidence as to what occurred in the city hall when Kohler was not present, was excluded over the objection of appellant.

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Ross v. Kohler, 174 S.W. 36, 163 Ky. 583, 1915 Ky. LEXIS 282 (Ky. Ct. App. 1915).

174 S.W. 36 (Ross v. Kohler) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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