Case Name: Clifton BORNE v. Eunice Borne BROWN, Louise Poth Borne and Ronald Borne
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1986-05-28
Citations: 492 So. 2d 6
Docket Number: No. CA 84-1118
Parties: Clifton BORNE v. Eunice Borne BROWN, Louise Poth Borne and Ronald Borne.
Judges: Before EDWARDS, LANIER, CRAIN, ALFORD and JOHN S. COVINGTON, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 492
Pages: 6–15

Head Matter:
Clifton BORNE v. Eunice Borne BROWN, Louise Poth Borne and Ronald Borne.
No. CA 84-1118.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.
May 28, 1986.
Dissenting Opinion June 4, 1986.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 20, 1986.
Writ Denied Nov. 7, 1986.
John R. Rarick, of Rarick & Brumfield, St. Francisville, for plaintiff Clifton Borne, appellant.
Guy Holdridge, Gonzales, for defendants Eunice Borne, Louise Poth Borne and Ronald Borne, appellees.
Before EDWARDS, LANIER, CRAIN, ALFORD and JOHN S. COVINGTON, JJ.

Opinion:
JOHN S. COVINGTON, Judge.
Clifton Borne devolutively appealed the decision of the District Court dismissing his suit for false imprisonment, false arrest and malicious prosecution, brought against his sister, Eunice Borne Brown, her son, Ronald Borne and Ronald's fiancee, Louise Poth. The scenario around which this litigation revolves is reminiscent of the famous Hatfields and McCoys feud, except that in the present case the feuding parties used judicial proceedings instead of guns in order to vent their spleens toward one another.
The alleged false imprisonment occurred at the property owned by Clifton and Eunice's mother, Clifton, Eunice and other siblings, the children having inherited the other undivided one-half interest in the community property from their father's intestate succession. Widow Borne was not occupying the house in August, 1980 because she was being cared for in the homes of her children, their identities not specified or revealed in the record.
Clifton, a resident of Baton Rouge, went to the "family homesite" on August 28, 1980 to check on the property. A carpenter for "many years," Clifton made repairs to the home on an "as needed" basis. The family homesite is located near Gonzales in Ascension Parish. At some unspecified time before Clifton visited the property on August 28, he and some of his siblings had filed suit to evict his nephew Ronald and his live-in fiancee, Louise Poth, who had moved a mobile home onto the "family homesite" in close proximity to the residence on it, which displeased Clifton and other siblings. While at the house on August 28 Clifton unplugged an extension cord running from inside the house to the water well pump which provided the mobile home its water supply; he threw the extension cord into the yard. The next day he returned to the property and again found the extension cord plugged in to supply the water well pump its source of power; again, he unplugged the cord and threw it into the yard. Louise Poth, having been made aware of Clifton's presence at the property, took action to prevent his leaving; she blocked the driveway, blocking his exit. Ronald and two other men stood nearby while Clifton, unable to move his automobile from its trapped position, sat, in fear for his personal safety. Approximately thirty minutes later an Ascension Parish Deputy Sheriff arrived and arrested Clifton for disturbing the peace, taking him to the Sheriff's sub-station where he was booked and fingerprinted. About three hours elapsed before Clifton's sister-in-law posted a property bond and he was released from custody.
Shortly after Clifton's release on bail from Ascension, Eunice appeared before an Ascension Parish Justice of the Peace and filed a complaint against Clifton for disturbing the peace and simple criminal damage to property. The latter charge grew out of Eunice's having accused Clifton of cutting the cord of the refrigerator on the unenclosed back porch of the house on two separate occasions, namely August 28 and August 29. Shortly thereafter, Clifton was re-arrested in Baton Rouge on the basis of the Ascension Parish charges, booked, fingerprinted and released on a separate bond.
Clifton was acquitted of the charges in Judge Kling's division of District Court on January 27, 1981 and on July 2, 1981 he sued Eunice, Ronald and Louise for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. All three defendants filed a joint answer less than two weeks after Clifton's suit was filed and three weeks after filing their answer Louise Poth, using the services of the same law firm, sued Clifton in East Baton Rouge Parish, his domicile, for false arrest and malicious prosecution growing out of his having pressed charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace against her. As a result of Clifton's complaint, a Deputy Sheriff went to Louise's workplace and informed her that he had a warrant for her arrest and he let her go to the workplace of her fiance, Ronald Borne, who accompanied her when she turned herself in at the sub-station where she was booked. The District Attorney's Office in Ascension Parish dismissed all charges against Louise on the date set for trial. The matter of Louise's suit against Clifton is not before the Court; she neither appealed the decision nor answered Clifton's appeal of the dismissal of his suit against her.
We are called on to decide whether Clifton Borne proved his allegations of false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
The District Judge stated at the conclusion of the testimony he did not need mem-oranda of law and that he would take the matter under advisement. Eleven days later the Judge simply stated in his judgment that "the law and the evidence are in favor of defendant(sic)." The record is totally devoid of any reasons for judgment, stated either in writing or orally from the Bench. Therefore we do not have the benefit of the Trial Judge's thinking which led to his conclusion.
We note that defendant Ronald Borne did not testify and nothing in the record suggests that he was present during the trial. Also, Louise's two daughters who lived in the mobile home with her and her fiance, Ronald Borne and were physically at the "family homesite" and supposedly observed Clifton's arrival on both days in question, were not called as witnesses by their mother either in defending Clifton's suit or in support of her suit against Clifton. Under these circumstances, we apply the adverse inference or presumption principle against defendants Eunice Borne Brown, Louise Poth and Ronald Borne. Hayes v. Commercial Union Assurance Co., 459 So.2d 1245 (La.App. 1st Cir.1984).
FALSE IMPRISONMENT
O'Conner v. Hammond Police Dept., 439 So.2d 558 (La.App. 1st Cir.1983) succinctly states the law of false imprisonment, as follows:
The tort of false imprisonment has two essential elements: (1) detention of a person; and (2) the unlawfulness of such detention_ Unlawful detention is restraint without color of legal authority.... Thus, if an arrest is made either without any legal process or warrant or under a warrant void and null upon its face, a false imprisonment has oc-curred_ However, if a person is arrested pursuant to statutory authority, there is no liability for damages for false imprisonment_ 439 So.2d at 560.
The testimony in the present case supports Clifton's contention that he was unlawfully detained by the action of Louise Poth's blocking his exit from the driveway of the family homesite in which he had an undivided ownership. On the contrary, Ronald Borne and Louise Poth had no ownership interest in the property. Even so, Louise testified that because she was Ronald's "common law wife" she had the "right to take care of his property" and for that reason detained him by blocking his exit while Ronald and two other men stood nearby, thus placing Clifton in great fear for his personal safety. After being trapped for about thirty minutes the Sheriff's deputy arrived and removed him from his position of peril, either real or perceived, by arresting him and taking him into custody. The officer was dispatched as a result of a telephone call from Eunice that Clifton was at the property; testimony is contradictory as to whether Louise or Ronald called Eunice at work and related that Clifton was there and could not get away; suffice it to say that Eunice reacted to a call from either Ronald or Louise and that Ronald and two others made sure Clifton did not get away before the police arrived.
Ever mindful that an appeals court is not free to reverse a trial court unless it is found, from the record as a whole, that the Trial Court's findings and conclusions are clearly erroneous, we find that the Trial Court's judgment is manifestly or clearly erroneous. Arceneaux v. Domingue, 365 So.2d 1330 (La.1978). Clifton did establish, by the required preponderance of the evidence, that he was detained, until the police arrived, by the defendants, acting in concert, without color of legal authority.
MALICIOUS PROSECUTION
In O'Conner, supra, we restated the well established law of malicious prosecution, as follows:
The elements of the tort of malicious prosecution are as follows: (1) 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; and (6) damage conforming to legal standards resulting to plaintiff. . 439 So.2d at 561.
Malice may be inferred from the circumstances of a particular case. Robinson v. Goudchaux, 307 So.2d 287 (La.1975); McClendon v. Carrier, 451 So.2d 163 (La.App. 1st Cir.1974). The record reveals that mutual ill-will existed between Clifton and his sister, Eunice, going back to Eunice's early childhood, as demonstrated by Clifton's characterizing Ronald as Eunice's "illegitimate son" and reluctantly conceding their relationship by testifying that "due to no fault of my own . we're supposed to be brothers and sisters" and shown by Eunice's testimony that although no one observed Clifton cut the refrigerator cord she "would have assumed it was him" and nothing would have been gained by speaking with him because Clifton has "always had a hatred for me" and they were "not on speaking terms." The record has more than adequate information from which we infer malice on the part of Eunice, Louise and Ronald. The eviction suit brought by Clifton and some of his siblings to have the mobile home removed from the "family homesite" certainly did nothing to endear him to any of the defendants. The family discord which existed between Clifton and Eunice got out of control and precipitated Eunice's "rashly filing an affidavit which resulted in plaintiff's having to answer to criminal charges which resulted in his acquittal." Even as to his acquittal, Eunice testified "he wasn't exactly found not guilty. We just couldn't prove it."
We hold that all the elements of malicious prosecution were proved by a preponderance of the evidence. Clifton's claim that his pre-existing heart condition was aggravated by being arrested on at least two separate occasions (possibly four), arising out of the same incident, is not corroborated by medical testimony or records of any health care professional or facility. However, "damages are also to be presumed in a case where all other elements of a suit for malicious prosecution are satisfied. In the absence of proof of special damages, however, those damages will usually be nominal." Robinson v. Goudchaux's, supra, at 290. A criminal prosecution is regarded as stigmatizing and disparaging the reputation of the person charged with crime and an appropriate award in a suit which is based on a dismissed civil proceeding wrongfully brought would not be appropriate in a case based on an acquittal of a criminal charge. Robinson v. Goudchaux's, supra, at 290.
In the present case Clifton sustained lost wages of $343.20 and expended the sum of $1,000.00 for legal services in defending the criminal proceedings and prosecuting the suit which is now on appeal. While it is difficult to determine how much Clifton should be awarded for the humiliation, embarrassment and stigma resulting from the criminal proceedings, we believe an award of One Thousand Two Hundred Dollars will be adequate. Whittington v. Gibson Discount Center, 296 So.2d 375 (La.App. 2d Cir.1974). Clifton's going back to the property a second time, knowing the hard feelings which existed between him and Eunice and that he among others had an eviction suit pending, dictates against a larger award. While the defense of contributory negligence is not available to defendants charged with the intentional tort of malicious prosecution, his going back to a place under circumstances which should have alerted him to possible trouble militates against awarding him general damages greater than $1,200.00.
The judgment of the District Court is reversed and judgment is rendered in favor of Clifton Borne and against Eunice Borne Brown for the sum of $2,543.20, for malicious prosecution and the losses and expenses resulting therefrom, plus legal interest thereon from date of judicial demand until paid, and for one-half the costs of court at the trial level and on appeal; judgment is rendered in favor of Clifton Borne and against Louise Poth Borne and Ronald Borne, in solido, for the sum of $1,000.00 for false imprisonment, plus legal interest thereon from date of judicial demand until paid, and for one-half the costs of court at the trial level and on appeal.
REVERSED AND RENDERED.
. When the defendants' answer was filed in Clifton's suit and when the suit by Louise against Clifton was filed in East Baton Rouge Parish, the Trial Judge in this case was a member of the law firm which defended the original defendants and prosecuted Louise's suit, consolidated for trial, after transfer from East Baton Rouge to Ascension, simultaneously with the trial of Clifton's suit. This strikes us as a case which the Trial Judge should have, on his own motion, recused himself. See Code of Judicial Conduct, Canon 2(A); La.C.C.P. arts. 151 et seq.