Court Opinion

ID: 9849401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:39:40.252554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:22.729053
License: Public Domain

Benham, Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe that the majority has overlooked evidence compelling a different result, I am constrained to dissent from its judgment of reversal. My difference with the majority’s view of this case is centered on two points. First, the majority states that there is no evidence conclusively showing that the manner in which appellee was arrested by appellant Tripp, the arresting officer, was pursuant to any official policy or custom of the City of Marietta. In fact, the only evidence on that issue is Tripp’s testimony that the practice of placing shoplifting suspects under arrest in lieu of the complainant securing a city warrant for shoplifting was the police department’s “routine procedure.” It is clear, therefore, that the liability here does not stem from the activity of a single city employee but from an established practice. Second, the majority holds that there is evidence that a proper judicial determination of probable cause could not have been obtained within the period appellee was held in custody. Notwithstanding what might have been done or not done, the uncontradicted evidence in the record shows that the handling of appellee’s prosecution, an arrest under a void city warrant for a state offense, was according to long-established policy of the City of Marietta. That evidence leaves no room for speculation: it shows a deliberate city policy of incarcerating suspects without a valid determination of probable cause for doing so.
Since the only evidence in the record of this case relating to the policies governing the arrest and incarceration of appellee showed a deliberate disregard for due process, I am compelled to conclude that the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to appellee against the City of Marietta was correct and should be affirmed.
*419Decided June 27, 1985
Rehearing denied July 11, 1985
Y. Kevin Williams, for appellant.
Wallace C. Clayton, James W. Friedewald, for appellee.