Waddle v. Wilson

175 S.W. 382, 164 Ky. 228, 1915 Ky. LEXIS 367
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedApril 21, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 175 S.W. 382 (Waddle v. Wilson) 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
Waddle v. Wilson, 175 S.W. 382, 164 Ky. 228, 1915 Ky. LEXIS 367 (Ky. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Settle

Reversing.

In this action the appellee, J. C. Wilson, recovered a verdict and judgment for $927.00 against the appellants, J. S. Waddle, a policeman of the city of Somerset, and the National Surety Company, his surety, as damages for the alleged unlawful arrest of the appellee by Waddle, and from that judgment Waddle and surety have appealed.

The arrest was made at eight o ’clock at night, during the Pulaski County fair, and after the appellant Waddle had received information that the appellee, Wilson, had cut and seriously wounded one Ernest Barnett with a knife, which charge, if true, constituted a felony. Following his arrest appellee was confined in jail until’ the next morning about nine o’clock. In point of fact he was not guilty of the cutting and wounding of Barnett.

[230]*230The appellants filed a joint and separate answer to the petition, in which they admitted the arrest, and alleged that at the time it was made Waddle believed and had probable cause to believe that appellee had committed a felony; and, also, that he was drunk and disorderly when arrested. It was also alleged in the answer that on the morning following the arrest of appellee he was brought before the police court of the city of Somerset under a charge of being drunk and disorderly at the time of his arrest, which' charge he confessed and in open court entered a plea of guilty; and these facts were pleadéd in' justification of the arrest.

The averments of the answer were substantially traversed by the appellee’s reply. Later, and at the same term of the court, the appellant National Surety Company filed a second and separate answer, in which it was, in substance, alleged that the bond upon which it was bound as surety for the appellant J. S. Waddle, as policeman, was for the sum of $1,000.00, and by its terms limited its liability as surety to that amount; that in an action previously brought against Waddle and it on the bond, by a person other than the appellee, J. C. Wilson, there was a recovery against it, as the surety of Waddle, of $550.00 in damages, which it paid; and that this recovery and payment reduced its liability on the bond to $450.00. It was also alleged that in the event of a recovery of damages by the appellee Wilson for his alleged unlawful arrest by the appellant Waddle complained of, it, as the latter’s surety, would be liable for only so much of such recovery as would not exceed $450.00. To this separate answer of the appellant National Surety Company appellee filed a demurrer, which the circuit court sustained; to which ruling the National Surety Company excepted.

At a subsequent term of the court, and before the case was reached for trial, the appellants filed an amended answer, in which they jointly and severally averred that on the morning following the arrest of the appellee Wilson he was tried in the police court of Somerset for the offense of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, for which he was arrested by thé appellant Waddle, and by its judgment found guilty and his punishment fixed at a fine of five dollars and the costs of the prosecution, amounting to $2.90. This judgment, it was alleged, constituted a bar to the recovery of dam[231]*231ages sought by appellee. Appellee filed a demurrer to the amended answer of the appellants, and this demurrer the court also sustained, to which ruling appellants excepted.

The first ground urged by appellants for a reversal of the judgment of the circuit court is, that that court erred in sustaining the demurrer to their amended answer. This contention is manifestly sound. If, as alleged in the amended answer, appellee was drunk or disorderly at the time of his arrest, and this was seen by and known to the appellant Waddle at the time, it constituted an offense for which he had the same right to make the arrest without a warrant that he would have had to make an arrest for a felony without a warrant, if appellee had been guilty of a felony; and the averment was made in the amended answer that the arrest was effected because of appellee’s being drunk and disorderly in the presence of the appellant Waddle, as well as on account of the. felony of cutting and wounding Barnett, of which the latter had been informed and had reasonable ground to believe him guilty; and though it subsequently developed that appellee was not guilty of the felony, if, as also alleged in the amended answer, he was tried and convicted in the police court of drunkenness or disorderly conduct, the judgment of conviction would have afforded conclusive evidence of his guilt of the latter offense, justified the arrest and constituted a bar to the recovery of damages sought therefor.

In Louisville Ry. Co. v. Hutti, 141 Ky., 511, we held “that a judgment convicting a person of disorderly conduct afforded conclusive evidence of the misconduct for which the arrest was made, and the consequent justifiable acts of the officer and the prosecuting witness in causing the arrest. ’ ’ The soundness of this doctrine was declared in Holtman v. Bullock, 142 Ky., 335; Duerr v. K. & I. Bridge Co., 132 Ky., 228; and is also approved in 19 Cyc., 353, and numerous authorities cited in the footnotes in support thereof.

In Griffin v. Russell, 161 Ky., 471, which was an action for false arrest brought against a policeman and the surety in his bond, the appellants at the close of the testimony tendered an amended answer to conform to the proof, in which they withdrew the denial of their original answer that the appellee had been arrested, and .justified the arrest upon the ground that he had used [232]*232abusive language, for which he was 'subsequently convicted. The circuit coiirt refused to permit the amendment to be filed and excluded the police court record and all evidence as to the appellee’s trial and conviction for the use of the abusive language. This was done upon the ground that the original answer denied the arrest. On the appeal, however, we held that the variance between the original and the amended answer was not material; that the amendment merely conformed to the proof and did not mislead the appellee; and, further, that in refusing to let it be filed the trial court was in error, as appellee’s conviction in the police court for the offense for which he was arrested justified the arrest complained of. The opinion approves the doctrine announced in Louisville Ry. Co. v. Hutti, supra, that the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, convicting a person complaining of the arrest of the offense for which he was arrested, constitutes in law a justification for the arrest, in that it conclusively establishes the fact that the officer, in making the arrest, was acting upon probable cause.

It is, however, insisted for appellee that appellants were not prejudiced by the ruling of the court in sustaining the demurrer to the amended answer, because, notwithstanding this ruling, the court during the trial gave appellants leave to introduce the judgment of the police court showing the trial and conviction of appellee of the offense of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, but that appellants refused to introduce the judgment as evidence. It conclusively appears from the record that the permission thus given the appellants by the court to introduce the judgment was not granted until all the witnesses had testified and the evidence of each party had been closed.

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Bluebook (online)
175 S.W. 382, 164 Ky. 228, 1915 Ky. LEXIS 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waddle-v-wilson-kyctapp-1915.