Opinion ID: 1248535
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Malicious-Prosecution Claim.

Text: The court of appeals reversed that portion of the district court's judgment awarding actual and punitive damages for malicious prosecution. In doing so, it relied on the premise that an accusation does not amount to the procuring of a criminal prosecution if it is left to the uncontrolled choice of [a] third person to bring the proceedings or not as he may see fit. (Quoting Lukecart v. Swift & Co., 256 Iowa 1268, 1281, 130 N.W.2d 716, 724 (1964)). The court of appeals based its conclusion that the criminal prosecution was the independent judgment of the police officers and county attorney based on the fact that the officers questioned plaintiff at the store, and the assistant county attorney testified that the decision to file a trial information was his own. Notwithstanding these circumstances, we are convinced that the jury could have found that defendant instigated the criminal charges that were brought against the plaintiff. It is an essential element of a malicious-prosecution claim that the defendant procured or instigated the criminal prosecution. Lukecart, 256 Iowa at 1268, 130 N.W.2d at 723; Restatement (Second) of Torts § 653 cmt. d (1976). As revealed by the quotation from Lukecart relied on by the court of appeals, we have recognized that merely furnishing information to the police is not the instigation of a criminal prosecution. Our cases also recognize, however, that ordinarily the filing of a criminal complaint is the instigation of criminal charges, and indeed, a private person may be an instigator even though that person has not filed a formal complaint. Id.; Bair v. Shoultz, 233 Iowa 980, 983, 7 N.W.2d 904, 905 (1943). In the present case, the formal complaint filed with the magistrate as the basis for holding plaintiff in custody was executed by the store security officer. Although that complaint was not filed with the magistrate until after plaintiff was arrested and taken to jail, it was implicit from the procedure followed by the officers that they required a complaint from a store official in order to make the arrest. These preliminary acts of complaint and arrest were the genesis of the criminal prosecution against plaintiff. Defendant further urges that the district court erred in instructing the jury as to the standard for probable cause to initiate criminal prosecution. The trial court instructed the jury that: