Opinion ID: 1164042
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the instruction on reasonable cause as a defense to false imprisonment

Text: On the issue of reasonable cause as a defense against false imprisonment by a shopkeeper, the trial court instructed the jury: Instruction No. 26 The owner of property may, for the purpose of protecting it, restrain, for a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner, for the purpose of investigation, one whom he has reasonable and probable cause to believe is stealing his property. Instruction No. 27 To constitute reasonable grounds for the detention of the plaintiffs in this case, the evidence must establish that the conduct of plaintiffs as observed by defendant, through its employees, agents and servants, was such as to give defendant reasonable belief that plaintiffs had concealed merchandise upon their persons that had not been paid for. If you find from all of the evidence that the foregoing facts are true, you must find that there was [sic] reasonable grounds to detain the plaintiffs. If you find that such facts are not true, you must find that there was [sic] not reasonable grounds to detain them. Malvo argues that this was error since (1) the trial judge should have submitted special interrogatories to the jury asking them to determine if the facts establishing reasonable cause were proved so as to give the jury explicit guidance as to what constitutes reasonable cause, and (2) the instructions do not place any burden on the store owner to take reasonable measures to ascertain that merchandise is missing or concealed on the suspect before initiating a detention and search. While there is strong authority that the best method of instructing the jury in this situation is to submit special interrogatories asking them to determine if the facts constituting reasonable cause exist so as to avoid the possibility that the jury will invade the province of the court and make a legal decision as to reasonable cause, [15] it is well established that: [T]he number and form of issues submitted by way of special interrogatories, if they, along with the instructions to the jury fairly present the ultimate questions of fact to be determined, is a matter resting in the sound discretion of the trial judge. Patterson v. Cushman, 394 P.2d 657, 665 n. 26 (Alaska 1964). (Citations omitted.) Thus we are to determine not what we might or might not choose as the best instruction, but if the instructions given adequately presented the fact issues to the jury. In that regard, we believe that the instruction was adequate. We recognize the tremendous problem that shoplifting presents to the contemporary merchant. In the modern store, patrons have ready access to hundreds of items, often with little supervision or contact by store personnel until a purchase is made. Thus the store owner must strike a reasonable balance between feasible surveillance of customers, inventory control and the threat to a suspect's privacy. The instruction, which placed on the store owner the necessity of having a ... reasonable belief that the plaintiffs had concealed merchandise upon their persons, adequately conveyed the duty of the store owner to take reasonable detection measures before acting. This reasonable man standard is a familiar one in tort law, and juries have historically been asked to make similar factual determinations. While it might well be possible to write an instruction that would better delineate the boundaries of reasonable conduct by a store owner, we do not find that the instruction was erroneous. [16]