Stauffacher v. Brother

292 N.W. 432, 67 S.D. 314, 128 A.L.R. 925, 1940 S.D. LEXIS 39
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJune 11, 1940
DocketFile No. 8346.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 292 N.W. 432 (Stauffacher v. Brother) 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
Stauffacher v. Brother, 292 N.W. 432, 67 S.D. 314, 128 A.L.R. 925, 1940 S.D. LEXIS 39 (S.D. 1940).

Opinion

RUDOLPH, J.

The plaintiff seeks to recover damages in this action for certain acts of the defendants which culminated in' the arrest of the plaintiff. The case was tried to a jury and resulted in a verdict directed against the plaintiff at the close of plaintiff’s case. Plaintiff has appealed.

The record discloses that after some negotiations the defendant Charles Brother, who is a son of the defendant Henry Brother, turned over to the plaintiff an automobile which he then owned together with fifty dollars in cash for a certain automobile then in the possession of the plaintiff. *316 At the time of this transaction which took place in the state of Iowa, the plaintiff was unable to furnish a certificate of title to the car which he was transferring in the exchange. The plaintiff furnished a bill of sale and agreed to obtain the certificate of title and transfer the same within “possibly a few days.” Thereafter on several occasions the defendants interviewed the plaintiff regarding the certificate of title and were advised on each occasion that plaintiff had not yet obtained it. After waiting approximately two months for the certificate of title, the defendants demanded that the plaintiff return the car which he had received in exchange, together with the money paid, and take back the car he had delivered to Charles Brother. The plaintiff refused to “trade back”, and following this refusal the defendant Henry Brother became very angry and accused the plaintiff of selling a stolen automobile. Within a few days thereafter according to the testimony of the plaintiff he saw the defendant Henry Brother and agreed to “trade' back”, but before such transaction was had, and after defendants learned the car was not registered in plaintiffs name, the plaintiff was arrested. It appears that the defendant, Henry Brother, consulted the state’s attorney of Minnehaha County and was advised by him that, if a crime had been committed, it was committed in the state of Iowa, whereupon Mr. Brother consulted the - county attorney of Lyon County, Iowa. Following this interview Henry Brother appeared before a certain justice of peace in Lyon County and swore out a complaint for the arrest of the plaintiff, wherein it was charged that plaintiff had obtained property under false pretenses. A warrant was issued for plaintiffs arrest. Thereafter thé facts involved were presented to a grand jury in the state of Iowa which returned an indictment against the plaintiff. On November 15th, 1937, a complaint was filed in the municipal court in the city of Sioux Falls charging the plaintiff with being a fugitive from justice. A warrant was issued upon this complaint, and plaintiff was arrested and held in jail-for-several hours, -after which he was released on bail. Extradition proceedings were had before the then governor of this state who refused to order that the plaintiff *317 return to the-state of Iowa. Following this order of the governor, the proceedings in the municipal court in the city of Sioux Falls were dismissed. Thereafter the plaintiff, according to his own testimony, deliberately refrained from going into the state of Iowa and submitting to the jurisdiction of the Iowa court, and in March, 1939, after a new county attorney had taken office in Lyon County, Iowa, the proceedings against the plaintiff were there dismissed upon the application of the county attorney. After the dismissal of the proceedings in Iowa, plaintiff commenced this action to recover damages.

Appellant’s principal contention is that the facts disclosed upon the trial are sufficient upon which the jury might have returned a judgment against the defendants on the theory of malicious prosecution. However, appellant also briefly contends that the facts are sufficient upon which the jury might find a false arrest or a false imprisonment. We consider first this minor contention of appellant.

We are convinced that under the rule announced in Just v. Martin Brothers Co., 37 S. D. 470, 159 N. W. 44, the complaint states no cause of action for false arrest. Nowhere in the complaint is it alleged that the warrant under which the plaintiff was committed was void, and there are no allegations from which such fact might be determined. The complaint states causes of action for malicious prosecution and this was the theory upon which the'case was tried and determined. Questions which were not within the issues in the trial court are not within the issues in the Supreme Court on appeal. Cannon v. Merchen et al., 54 S. D. 592, 223 N. W. 824.

The elements of “malicious prosecution” are: “(1) the commencement or continuance of an original criminal or civil judicial proceeding; (2) its legal causation by the present defendant against plaintiff, who was defendant in the original proceeding; (3) its bona fide termination in favor of the present plaintiff; (4) the absence of probable cause for such proceeding; (5) the presence of malice therein; (6) damage conforming to legal standards resulting to plaintiff.” Just v. Martin Bros. Co., 37 S. D. 470, 476, 159 N. W. 44, 46; *318 Larsen v. Johnson, 47 S. D. 202, 204, 197 N. W. 230; 38 C. J. 386; Chapman v. Anderson, 55 App. D. C. 165, 3 F.2d 336; Wheeler v. Nesbitt et al., 24 How. 544, 65 U. S. 544, 16 L. Ed. 765; Brown v. Keyes, 54 S. D. 596, 223 N. W. 819.

The burden of proof was upon the plaintiff to prove the want of probable cause. We seriously doubt whether plaintiff met this burden with his proof, but in view of our opinion that other features of the case sustain the holding of the trial court, it is unnecessary to discuss the question of probable cause.

As we view this record, element three as above stated is lacking. Element three requires the bona fide determination of the original proceeding in favor of the present plaintiff. This court in the case of Baumgarten v. Mathieu, 39 S. D. 584, 165 N. W. 989, cited with approval the case of Halberstadt v. New York Life Ins. Co., 194 N. Y. 1, 86 N. E. 801, 804, 21 L. R. A., N. S., 293, 16 Ann. Cas. 1102. This New York case specifically held that “where the proceeding has been terminated without regard to its merits or propriety by agreement or settlement of the parties, or solely by the procurement of the accused as a matter of favor or as the result of some act, trick, or device preventing action and consideration by the court, there is no such termination as may be availed of for the purpose of such an action.” Speaking with reference to the original proceeding upon which the action for malicious prosecution was based, the court said: “That proceeding came to a dismissal and end, not because of any judicial action in favor of the accused for lack of merits or because of a withdrawal or abandonment of it by the prosecuting party, but simply because the defendant therein succeeded in escaping from the country and eluding the jurisdiction of the court and thereby preventing a prosecution. He by his flight, as in other cases the accused had done by agreement, settlement, or trick, prevented a consideration of the merits, and he ought not now to be allowed to claim that there were no merits.”

In the case before us the appellant deliberately and upon the advice of counsel refrained from going into the state *319

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Bluebook (online)
292 N.W. 432, 67 S.D. 314, 128 A.L.R. 925, 1940 S.D. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stauffacher-v-brother-sd-1940.