Opinion ID: 1708952
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: legal elements of false arrest

Text: The arguments of the parties and the opinions expressed by the trial court and the Court of Appeals seem to indicate a lack of consensus as to the legal elements of false arrest or imprisonment. [4] Therefore, we undertook to derive the elements from Michigan cases and other authorities prior to the enactment of 1927 PA 175. Without attempting to set forth the broad implications of the terms arrest or imprisonment, we found the following: False arrest or imprisonment is arrest or imprisonment (1) of a person (2) who is innocent of the charge on which he is arrested (3) by the defendant or at his instigation (4) without legal justification. Some comments are in order. First, normally an action for false arrest or imprisonment involves a person in fact innocent of the offense for which he or she was arrested or imprisoned. We have set up the elements to include innocence as an element of false arrest, but we have found three isolated cases recognizing an action for false arrest where the arrestee subsequently pled guilty of the crime for which there had been a faulty arrest. McCullough v Greenfield, 133 Mich 463; 95 NW 532 (1903); Durham v Feeney, 195 Mich 318; 162 NW 79 (1917); and Larson v Feeney, 196 Mich 1; 162 NW 275 (1917). These cases do not appear to have been relied on subsequently. Second, defendants reiterated in their brief and during oral argument that a false arrest claim is designed to remedy an illegal arrest, irrespective of the factual guilt or innocence of the person arrested. (Emphasis added.) The crucial element in an action for false arrest or false imprisonment is not that the arrest or detention was unlawful. The test is whether the defendant had legal justification to arrest or detain the plaintiff. Safeway Stores, Inc v Barrack, 210 Md 168, 173; 122 A2d 457 (1956). In most false arrest or false imprisonment cases, the restraint or detention will not be legally justified when the arrest is illegal. Thus, in the past, this Court on occasion seems to have looked to the lawfulness of the arrest to determine, at the same time that it was weighing, the legal justification. See, e.g., Barker v Anderson, 81 Mich 508, 511; 45 NW 1108 (1890); Donovan v Guy, 347 Mich 457, 464; 80 NW2d 190 (1956). By legal justification we mean legal authority. As the District of Columbia Court of Appeals observed: [L]egal justifications may only be found where the person making the arrest has legal authority to do so. Shaw v May Dep't Stores Co, 268 A2d 607, 609 (DC App, 1970). Accord, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co, Inc v Paul, 256 Md 643, 655; 261 A2d 731 (1970). However, it is evident that the test turns on the presence of legal justification rather than the legality of the arrest when one considers that, on the one hand, a private citizen can participate in an unlawful arrest and not be subject to civil liability under certain circumstances, and, on the other hand, can participate in a lawful arrest and be subject to civil liability under other circumstances. For example, a private citizen who, acting under the direction of a police officer, assists in an arrest later adjudicated to be unlawful is nevertheless absolved of civil liability. Firestone v Rice, 71 Mich 377, 380-381; 38 NW 885 (1888). Accord, MCL 764.16(c); MSA 28.875(c). See Anno: Liability, for false imprisonment or arrest, of a private person answering call of known or asserted peace or police officer to assist in making arrest which turns out to be unlawful, 29 ALR2d 825; Prosser, supra, § 26, p 133; 32 Am Jur 2d, False Imprisonment, § 46, pp 104-105; Wilgus, Arrest Without a Warrant, 22 Mich L Rev 798, 798-800 (1924). Although the arrest was unlawful, no action may be maintained against the private citizen because he acted with legal justification under the direction of the police officer in making the arrest. Contrariwise, it is possible that an arrest could be adjudicated lawful as between the arrestee and the police, yet a private citizen, acting through the police without legal justification, would be subject to liability for false arrest. If a private citizen summons a police officer and intentionally gives him false information accusing another of a felony and if the officer, reasonably acting on this false information, arrests the innocent person, the arrest would be lawful. [5] However, grounds for an action for false arrest would still exist against the individual who intentionally accused the innocent person since the defendant instigated the arrest without legal justification. See Howard v Burton, 338 Mich 178, 183-184; 61 NW2d 77 (1953); Simpson v Burton, 328 Mich 557, 561-562; 44 NW2d 178 (1950). See also 32 Am Jur 2d, False Imprisonment, § 45, p 104. Therefore, the legality of the arrest is not necessarily a bar to maintaining an action for false arrest or false imprisonment. Third, the elements might be changed by 1927 PA 175, although it is more likely that only the definition of what constitutes legal justification might be changed. Fourth, the term legal justification is not the same thing as probable cause. For example, the Court of Appeals opinion stated that where an arrest is made on probable cause, the arrest is valid, and any false imprisonment claim falls away. There are situations where this statement may be true, but usually it is not unless it is also clear that a felony for which the person was arrested had been committed. The Court of Appeals statement was, however, irrelevant in this case because it referred to the police having probable cause, whereas the proper issue in this case was whether defendants through their employees had probable cause for the arrest they instigated.