Court Opinion

ID: 9473838
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:41:01.209363+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:45.620827
License: Public Domain

WALD, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the panel’s affirmance of the district court’s denial of appellant Giles’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on appellee Davis’ malicious prosecution claim. The jury found that Giles was liable for malicious prosecution and awarded Davis $10,000. The jury also found that each party had committed an assault and battery on the other but declined to award either party damages. Under the circumstances of this case, the jury’s finding of malicious prosecution was inconsistent with its finding that Davis had in fact committed an assault and battery and thus should have been set aside.
To prevail on his malicious prosecution claim, Davis was required to show that Giles had no probable cause to initiate the criminal proceeding for assault and battery against Davis. See Dellums v. Powell, 566 F.2d 167, 191 n. 65 (D.C.Cir.1977). There is no question but that a finding that the person committed the offense charged is a complete defense against liability for malicious prosecution. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 657 (1977). On the other hand, the fact that the criminal charges are eventually dismissed or that the person is acquitted after a trial is obviously not itself determinative of liability in the subsequent malicious prosecution proceeding, since the favorable termination of the criminal proceeding is only one of the prerequisites to maintaining an action for malicious prosecution. See Dellums v. Powell, 566 F.2d at 191 n. 65 (one of the four elements of malicious prosecution is that the “prosecution must have ended in the plaintiff’s favor”); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 657 comment a (the guilt of person accused in criminal proceeding may be retried in civil proceeding).
In the present case, the jury found Davis had committed a civil assault and battery on Giles. Assault and battery are intentional torts. Hence both criminal and civil assault require proof of the same two elements: the act itself and the intent to commit the act. See D.C.Code Ann. § 22-504 (1973 & Supp. VII 1980); Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 13, 21 (1977). In the present case, Davis struck Giles with a three-foot stick resulting in a head injury to Giles requiring sixteen sutures. The jury’s finding of liability establishes that Davis committed the requisite acts with the requisite intent to constitute a civil assault and battery. Since civil and criminal liability for assault and battery are predicated on proof of the same basic elements of an act and an intent to commit the act, the jury’s finding that Davis committed an actual assault and battery, in my view, is sufficient under the circumstances of this case to establish that Giles had probable cause to initiate criminal proceedings.1 Thus Davis failed to establish an essential element of his malicious prosecution claim and the district court should have entered a judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

. My independent research has not uncovered, nor have the parties brought to the court’s attention, any authoritative articulation of a difference, pertinent to this case, between criminal and civil assault with respect to the nature or degree of intent required. It is true that a civil assault and battery may only entail the intent to cause "an imminent apprehension" of harm (e.g,, where one attempts to frighten another with an unloaded gun), see Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 13, 21 (1977), whereas simple assault, the criminal charge against Davis, requires the presence of circumstances denoting an intention of using actual violence against the person. See Guarro v. United States, 237 F.2d 578, 580 (D.C.Cir.1956); Matter of L.A.G., 407 A.2d 688, 689 (D.C.1979). This distinction is irrelevant to the present case since Davis did not merely attempt to cause an "imminent apprehension of harm." To find Davis civilly liable for assault and battery, the jury had to find both that he committed the assault and battery and that he did so intentionally. Surely these two jury findings establish as a matter of law that Giles had probable cause to initiate criminal proceedings.