Scott v. Feilschmidt

191 Iowa 347
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 6, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 191 Iowa 347 (Scott v. Feilschmidt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Feilschmidt, 191 Iowa 347 (iowa 1921).

Opinion

ARthub, J.

1, Arrest: conduct provoked by of-061' Plaintiff was a minor, under the age of 18 years, and a resident of Sioux City. Defendant Feilschmidt was an officer on the police force of Sioux City. Defendant United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, ,. n . ., , ,. , a corporation engaged m the bonding business, was surety on Feilschmidt’s bond. Feilschmidt, while acting as such police officer, without process of court, arrested plaintiff and detained her in his personal custody for a period of about an hour, on the streets of Sioux City, before a large crowd of men. At the time of the arrest, plaintiff was conducting herself as an orderly person, and not committing any breach of the peace or violation of law, nor had she in any manner violated any of the laws of the state of Iowa or ordinances of the city of Sioux City.

There is no dispute in the facts, except some difference in the testimony of plaintiff and defendant Feilschmidt as to what occurred and the conversation held between plaintiff and Feil-schmidt while plaintiff was in the custody of Feilschmidt.

Code Section 5196 provides:

“A peace officer may make an arrest in obedience to a warrant delivered to him; and without a warrant:
“1. For a public offense committed or attempted in his presence;
“2. Where a public offense has in fact been committed, and he has reasonable ground for believing that the person to be arrested has committed it.”

It is conceded that Feilschmidt was a police officer. Under Code Section 5099, he was a civil or public officer authorized to make arrests, under conditions warranting him so to do. The trial court held, in submitting the case to the jury, under the undisputed testimony, that, at the time Feilschmidt arrested plaintiff, plaintiff had not committed a public offense, or attempted to commit a public offense in the presence of Feil-schmidt, and that Feilschmidt had no reasonable ground for believing that plaintiff had committed a public offense. Complaint is made of such holding and instruction, and that the court refused' to submit to the jury the question of whether plaintiff, by her acts and by what she said to Feilschmidt, had committed a public offense after Feilschmidt had taken her into [349]*349bis custody, and whether or not Feilschmidt was justified in making the arrest.

The record does not bear out the claim of appellants. We have carefully examined the testimony of Miss Scott and of Feilschmidt, the only testimony bearing on that point, as to what "occurred and what was said by each of them while plaintiff was in the custody of Feilschmidt. It appears from the testimony of Feilschmidt that he accosted the girl while she was talking to someone else at a hotel news stand, and asked her what she was doing now, to which she replied, “None of your business;” that she said to him finally, “You are full of prunes, you bastard;” that she thereupon walked out of the hotel, and he followed her, and did catch up with her, and asked her why she had used that language to him, and she then said to him, “Go away, I will slap you in the face,” to which he replied, “No, you won’t, I didn’t give you any offense;” and that she then, as he described it, “hauled off and slapped me, and I then grasped her hand;” that Feilschmidt then showed his star and arrested her and took her to the city building, but did not take her to a magistrate or file any information against her.

Concerning the news stand incident, Miss Scott testified that she went there to get an evening paper, and was talking to the newsboy, and Feilschmidt stepped up and touched her on the waist, and said, “I know you; you know me.”

“I looked at him and said, ‘No, I don’t know you.’ He said, ‘ Oh yes, you know me all right. ’ I said: ‘ No, if you will tell me where I met you or saw you, maybe I can remember; but I don’t know; I never seen you before. ’ Then he said, ‘Why, I got you a job with the Johnson Biscuit Company,’ and I said, ‘No.’ Then it dawned on me who he was; he was the fellow that I was afraid of. I remembered then that, when I first came to Sioux City, I went to the Martin Hotel, and saw Feilschmidt when I was eating my breakfast. As I was leaving, he said, ‘Wait a minute. ’ I did not wait for him, and afterwards he overtook me on the street and asked me where I was going, and I didn’t answer him. He asked me where I was going again, and I said I was going to the Johnson Biscuit Company, and asked him if he knew where it was — I was going there to get work. He said he didn’t have anything to do for a couple of hours, and took [350]*350me down the street and showed me the place. We had conversation on the way. He said to me then, ‘I have a room.’ He said he would introduce me to the superintendent of the Johnson Biscuit Company. I said, ‘No, you couldn’t recommend me, you are a stranger, and couldn’t very well recommend me;’ and I started to leave him, and he said: ‘Listen, I have got a room at the hotel. You call me up at 4 o’clock and come over.’ I made no reply. I was afraid of him, and left him. I didn’t see Feilschmidt until this affair took place. Well, then he says, ‘Where are you working?’ I. didn’t want him to know where I was working, and I didn’t want him to know my name, and this made him kind of sore. I was embarrassed at his talking to me, and I said to him, ‘You big prune,’ and walked out, and thought he would not follow me. I didn’t see Mr. Feilschmidt until I got as far as Frank’s restaurant. Just as I got there, he grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘ I am going to arrest you, ’ and he said: ‘ I am going to take you to the police station and have you examined. I won’t have you call me a prune.’ I said, ‘What have I done?’ and he said, ‘You won’t call me a big prune.’ He then jerked me across the street. I was crying then, and he wouldn’t let loose of my arm; he was holding it real tight; and from one side of the street he jerked me to the other; and I said, ‘If you will let loose of my arm, I will talk with you, — I can’t walk when you are doing this.’ I am lame, and with such force I couldn’t stand up on my feet when he jerked me. He took me up as far as the New York Bakery, and I told him to let loose of my arm. There he said to me, ‘If you don’t come with me, how would you like a ride in the police patrol ? ’ I said, ‘ If .you will call my uncle, I can prove myself;’ and he said, ‘You have plenty of time to get your uncle. ’ At that point, there was a fellow and girl passing, and the girl said, ‘Oh, look there,’ and the fellow said, ‘Don’t pay any attention, he is just taking her in. ’ After that, I said to him, ‘Well, what have I done?’ He said, ‘You are not going to call me a big prune, all the way up the street.’ He had been calling me a prostitute, and saying these things to me over and over again. He was talking in a loud voice. Then he took me up the stairs into the city hall building. He walked to a door and tried to open it, and it was locked, and he said, ‘Mr. Mann [351]*351is not there.’ I said: ‘Well, take me to this place, wherever you are going to take me. I want to get my uncle.’ Then he said to me, ‘You little prostitute — soliciting around hotels.’ Then he asked me my name, for the first time. He did not ask me where I lived, or who my father and mother were. I told him I had nobody but my uncle; said I was working, and had nothing to hold my reputation up but him, and he wouldn’t get him for me. When we went out of the city building, there was quite a crowd gathered, and Feilschmidt told them I was soliciting around hotels.

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Bluebook (online)
191 Iowa 347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-feilschmidt-iowa-1921.