Court Opinion

ID: 9746912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:44:20.212918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:18.204711
License: Public Domain

McGINLEY, Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in the majority opinion that Trooper Miklich acted within the scope of his employment and that La Frankie’s claims do not fall within any of the eight exceptions to sovereign immunity. However, I respectfully dissent to the portion of the majority opinion which concludes that the trial court’s submission of the issue of La Frankie’s guilt to the jury was error.
In the present controversy, La Frankie alleges in his complaint: that “a reasonably well trained police officer should have known that the affidavit in the underlying criminal case failed to established probable cause for an arrest warrant taking into account the actual amount and quality of information known to Miklich at the time of the application for an arrest warrant”; that “Miklich had no probable cause for the arrest that occurred on November 13, 1984”; and that Miklich “caused criminal proceedings to be issued against the Plaintiff, Patrick LaFrankie, with malice and without probable cause, and continued to pursue such charges without probable cause.” Complaint, June 11, 1986, Paragraphs 41, 55 and 63; Reproduced Record (R.R.) at R13, R17 and R19.
Trooper Miklich denied that he was acting without probable cause in his answer and pled in New Matter that he “had *173reasonable and probable cause to arrest Patrick La Frankie.” Answer and New Matter, December 12, 1986, Paragraph 76; R.R. at R34. As to what constitutes probable cause, the trial court instructed the jury as to the following:
Probable cause means that the person making the arrest believed at the time of the arrest and a reasonable person under the same circumstances would also have believed that he had sufficient information as to both the facts and the applicable law to reasonably believe that a crime had been committed and that the person arrested was guilty of committing the crime.
Probable cause for an arrest exists when the facts and circumstances within the knowledge of the person making the arrest and of which he had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient in themselves to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that the person arrested had committed or was committing a crime.
Notes of Testimony, July 3, 1990, at 85. Herein the pleadings sufficiently preserved the defense of La Frankie’s guilt and I believe that Trooper Miklich was not foreclosed from proving La Frankie’s guilt because this was not pled in New Matter. Also, the trial court noted that the eyewitness testimony of Jan Orwan identifying La Frankie as the person purchasing merchandise with the Bielefeld’s credit card “was sufficient ... to support a determination of guilt.” Opinion of the Trial Court, April 30, 1991, at 8; R.R. at R55. The trial court correctly submitted the defense of La Frankie’s guilt to the jury.