Court Opinion

ID: 9698188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:44:23.799967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:39.217239
License: Public Domain

DUNN, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I would reverse. The probable cause instructions do not state the law of South Dakota and are confusing. The opinion given by an attorney was a major part of the defendant’s defense, and Instruction 15 in particular would be prejudicial to the defendant.
Instruction 13 states in essence that if the defendant made a full, fair, and complete disclosure to an attorney of all the perti*503nent and material facts of which the defendant had knowledge tending to prove or disprove the criminal charge and thereafter acted upon the advice of the attorney, probable cause for initiating the arrest existed. Instruction 15, however, goes on to say that “the defendant must not only show that he disclosed to his counsel all the material facts known to him, bearing on the guilt or innocence of the plaintiff, but he must also show that he disclosed to his counsel any reasonable grounds he might have had for believing that other facts existed that might exculpate the plaintiff, or show that he made inquiry himself as to such other facts.” This expanded duty set out in Instruction 15 is contrary to the probable cause requirement set out in McIntyre v. Meyer, 1965, 81 S.D. 417, 420, 136 N.W.2d 351, 353, and is a minority view according to Prosser, Torts, 4th Ed., § 119, pp. 843-844.
Under the facts of this case, where it became rather crucial as to whose duty it was to check out what Ray Medema may have seen, the inaccurate statement of the law in Instruction 15 became very prejudicial to the defendant.
I am authorized to state that Justice WOLLMAN joins in this dissent.