Opinion ID: 1838030
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the lower court erred in failing to direct a verdict for the appellants.

Text: The appellants have assigned eight (8) errors in the trial below. The assigned errors I and II are dispositive of the case and we will not address the other questions. The basic facts of this case are uncontradicted. On such facts, we must determine whether or not as a matter of law the appellants were guilty of negligence which proximately caused or contributed to the undisputed false arrest of the appellees. While we find no case in this jurisdiction on all fours with the facts here, this Court has spoken in other cases which lead the way. In Godines v. First Guaranty Savings & Loan Ass'n, 525 So.2d 1321 (Miss. 1988), two minors sued First Guaranty Savings & Loan Association and James P. Achee, its agent, for false arrest and false imprisonment. The lower court granted summary judgment and this Court reversed and remanded for a trial. In the case sub judice, the facts were fully developed, and after trial on the merits, the lower court granted a directed verdict on the issue of false imprisonment for the appellees. This Court said in Godines: The controlling issue on appeal is whether Achee's actions as outlined above present a factual dispute as to whether Achee procured or instigated Phillips' arrest. 525 So.2d at 1323. Phillips was driven by his friend, Godines, to the bank for the purpose of cashing a sixty dollar ($60.00) check. Achee, the bank teller, was suspicious of Phillips, waited upon him, questioned Phillips about an account in the bank and observed his actions, instructed an employee to call the police about a suspicious person (Phillips) and talked to the police department over the telephone in the presence of Phillips under a code signal which meant that one person was robbing the bank. Achee paid the check with money which set off a silent alarm from the bank. Two policemen answered the call, arrested Phillips and Godines and took them to the police department where they were interrogated from forty-five (45) minutes to one and one-half (1 1/2) hours. This Court said in Godines: However, this Court has acknowledged that before a person may be held liable for causing false imprisonment through false arrest, that person must have personally and actively participated therein directly or by indirect procurement. Smith v. Patterson, 214 Miss. 87, 93, 58 So.2d 64, 66 (1952). See Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts 52 (5th Ed. 1984). Procurement is not broadly defined, however. Again in Patterson, the Court, quoting from American Jurisprudence, stated: Where a person merely directs the attention of a public officer to what he supposes to be a breach of the peace and the officer, without other direction, arrests the offender on his own responsibility, the person who did nothing more than to communicate the facts to the officer is not liable for causing the arrest, even though it is made without a warrant. If the arrest is made without the knowledge and consent of such person, there is no liability. Id. at 94, 58 So.2d at 66.       In Lenaz v. Conway, 234 Miss. 231, 105 So.2d 762 (1958), the Court upheld a jury verdict for defendant on conflicting evidence of whether defendant caused a warrantless arrest. The defendant's proof at trial was that he merely related facts without any other direction to police. The Court cited Patterson, supra . This Court's opinion in Patterson and Lenaz seem to follow the general law. See generally, Annot. 21 A.L.R.2d 643, 694 § 23 (1952 & Supp. 1987). Restatement (Second) of Torts § 45A states: One who instigates or participates in the unlawful confinement of another is subject to liability to the other for false imprisonment. In comment c the Restatement authors explain what amounts to instigation: Instigation consists of words or acts which direct, request, invite or encourage the false imprisonment itself. In the case of an arrest, it is the equivalent, in words or conducts, of Officer, arrest that man! It is not enough for instigation that the actor has given information to the police about the commission of a crime, or has accused the other of committing it, so long as he leaves to the police the decision as to what shall be done about any arrest, without persuading or influencing them. Thus, the major question is whether Achee's actions were the equivalent, in words or conduct, of stating, Officer, arrest that man! See Howell v. Viener, 179 Miss. 872, 176 So. 731 (1937) (defendant called on police to arrest plaintiff and charged him with being a counterfeiter). 525 So.2d at 1324. In Smith v. Patterson, supra , one of the defendants telephoned police and identified the plaintiff as a person matching the description of the individual who had written a fraudulent check. The defendant requested that the police investigate the matter and the plaintiff was later arrested. Identification of the plaintiff turned out to be erroneous, but the Court held that where the defendant merely directed the attention of the police officers to a proposed illegal vicious person without directly or indirectly procuring the arrest, there was no liability. The case of Green v. Donroe, 186 Conn. 265, 440 A.2d 973 (1982), furnishes an interesting comparison with the case sub judice. The Connecticut Supreme Court stated the following facts of the case: On January 26, 1978, the named defendant (hereinafter the defendant), who was at the time emotionally disturbed, shot himself in the shoulder while he was at his place of employment, a package store in West Haven. He contacted the local police and when they arrived, he said that he had been robbed and shot by a black male wearing a green jacket and blue hat, that his assailant had a medium skin tone, a round face, a medium build and was about five feet ten inches in height. He lied to the police because he could not tolerate admitting that he had shot himself. Wholly by chance, the police picked up the plaintiff, a black man who was wearing a green jacket, and brought him to the defendant. When defendant did not identify him, the plaintiff was released. He was detained by the police for approximately ten minutes and suffered no other harm as a result of the incident. In a subsequent interview with the police at the hospital, the defendant admitted that he had shot himself because of an emotional disturbance resulting from a marital dispute and that his report of the robbery was a hoax. 440 A.2d at 974. The Court found that the false information was motivated solely by the defendant's embarrassment over shooting himself and was not done for the purpose of causing the arrest of the plaintiff or of anyone else. There was no evidence that he expected or intended that any arrest be made, and he had not directed or instigated an arrest. The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's entry of a directed judgment. In the present case, Joan Hilliard did not direct, request, invite or encourage the false arrest of the appellees. The interrogation of her was by leading and suggestive questions propounded by the investigating officer while she was in a stuporous condition. There was no evidence at the scene or anywhere else that a crime had been committed, e.g., robbery and/or rape. For a period of at least fifteen (15) minutes prior to the arrest of the appellees, officers at the scene on Sunshine's premises and at the hospital where Joan Hilliard was taken were aware that no crime had been committed. It is obvious that the sole proximate cause of the false arrest of appellees was the overzealous and uncoordinated activity of the police leading up to and effecting the arrest of appellees. We are of the opinion that the lower court erred in declining to enter a directed verdict for the appellants on the issue of liability and the judgment of the lower court must be reversed and judgment rendered here for the appellants.