Court Opinion

ID: 9472846
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:12:37.754786+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:11.034839
License: Public Domain

JAMES R. MILLER, Jr., District Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from Part II of the court’s opinion, because I believe that Florida law is unclear on the issues herein involved and that, under the circumstances of this case, certification of those questions of state law controlling herein should be made to the Supreme Court of Florida.
The majority recognize that, in this diversity ease, the district judge refused to give the instruction requested by Straight that an essential element of proof in a false imprisonment case, under Florida law, is that the restraint was “unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances,” and that the reason given by the judge for his refusal was “that he did not think reasonableness was a criteria under the circumstances of the present case.” (P. 918). Citing Jackson v. Biscayne Medical Center, Inc., 347 So.2d 721 (Fla.App.1977), and Johnson v. City of Pompano Beach, 406 So.2d 1257 (Fla.App.1981), the majority hold that “[rjeasonableness seems to be the test used when judging a stop or a detention when one is suspected of shoplifting or some other crime, and not when he has allegedly consented to the initial restraint.” (Emphasis supplied). P. 920.
Neither Jackson, supra, nor Johnson, supra, are decisions of the Supreme Court of Florida, the highest court of the State.
In addition, Jackson, supra, did not involve the question of the evidence necessary to establish the tort of false imprisonment, but merely held that the allegations of the complaint were sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. Jackson v. Biscayne Medical Center, Inc., 347 So.2d 721, 723.
In Johnson, a case involving an arrest by police officers for possession of lottery tickets, and not one, as here, involving an alleged consent to the initial restraint, the court, in reversing a summary judgment for the police, merely stated that since “plaintiff was required to show that the defendants, in procuring her arrest, exercised unlawful restraint and detained her against her will,” Johnson v. City of Pompano Beach, 406 So.2d 1257 at 1259, a dispute as to relevant facts relating to that issue existed. Since the majority seem to concede that Florida law does require that the restraint be “unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances” in cases involving arrest by police for suspicion of criminal activity, p. 920, it is anomalous that the majority rely upon the Johnson case as support for their finding that Florida law omits that requirement in a case of the type here under consideration.
In my view, the state of Florida law on the question here involved is uncertain. No opinions of the Florida Supreme Court directly on point have been cited or found. Nevertheless, it could be argued that Florida law requires a finding of “unreasonableness under the circumstances” in the type of case here under consideration for the reasons set forth below.
Although it appears that the unreasonableness requirement was imposed first in retail merchant cases where, under the common law, “there is clearly an implied authority to do all things that may be proper and necessary for the protection of property,” S.H. Kress & Co. v. Powell, 132 Fla. 471, 180 So. 757 at 761 (1938), and in cases in which the arresting or imprisoning person was acting under some official legal authority, see, e.g., City of Miami v. Albro, 120 So.2d 23, 27 (Fla.App.1960) (police officers); City of Hollywood v. Coley, 258 So.2d 828, 831 (Fla.App.1971) (building inspectors).*9231 Florida law seems to have extended the unreasonableness concept to cover other types of imprisonment situations.
In two cases in which the defendants were neither merchants nor policemen, the Supreme Court of Florida applied a reasonableness of restraint requirement. In Harris v. Lewis State Bank, 436 So.2d 338 (Fla.App.1983), the court examined whether a bank security guard was acting as a bank employee or as a uniformed off-duty police officer when he arrested the plaintiff. The court could not determine from the record the employment status of the bank guard, but it stated that the status of the bank guard went to the issue of whether, under the circumstances, the plaintiffs detention was unreasonable and unwarranted. Id. at 341. The court reasoned that if the bank guard were a bank employee, certain knowledge of bank officials regarding the plaintiffs innocent actions could be imputed to the guard, and, thus, his detention of the plaintiff would have been unreasonable, i.e., he should have known that plaintiffs withdrawals from the bank had been approved by bank officials. Id. If the bank guard were acting as an off-duty policeman, the knowledge of bank officials would not be imputed to him. Under either circumstance, however, the court indicated that the “plaintiff alleging false imprisonment must show ... that the restraint was unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances.” Id.
The court in Harris did not discuss whether the bank was a “merchant,” but in a previous Florida false imprisonment case, the court pointed out that a “merchant is a person who deals in goods ... other than money.” Washington County Kennel Club, Inc. v. Edge, 216 So.2d 512, 516 (Fla.App.1968), cert. denied, 225 So.2d 522 (Fla.1969) (operator of a pari-mutuel racetrack not a merchant). Therefore, the court in the latter case refused to apply the anti-shoplifting statute codified then at Florida Stat.Ann. § 811.022.
An argument can be made that in Harris the court was not applying a limited common law privilege available only to merchants and police, but, on the contrary, was stating that in any false imprisonment case, the plaintiff must show that the restraint was unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances.
Similarly, in Kanner v. First National Bank, 287 So.2d 715 (Fla.App.1974), a case in which the head teller of the bank detained a sick employee until her accounts were verified, the court held that “[u]nder the circumstances, ... the detention of the plaintiff ... would serve no useful purpose to the defendant bank and, therefore, the restraint may have been unreasonable and unwarranted and resulted in false imprisonment.” 287 So.2d at 717. The court reversed summary judgment for the defendant bank and remanded the case for trial on the issue. Here again the court did not discuss the concept of a merchant privilege. It stated, without qualification, “[fjalse imprisonment is the unlawful restraint of a person against his will. Further, the restraint must be unreasonable and unwarranted under the circumstances.” (Emphasis supplied). Id. at 717 (citations omitted). The language of the Supreme Court of Florida here also indicates that the concept of unreasonableness is not subsumed under the concept of “unlawful restraint,” but is an additional concept.
The majority also rejected the contention of Straight, in support of its requested jury instruction, “that the jury should have passed upon whether its withdrawal procedures, including the ‘cooling off period’ of 10 to 14 days were reasonable in programs handling persons” being treated for the use of illegal drugs. In doing so, the majority *924hold as a matter of law that subparagraph 14(a) of Chapter 10E-7.il of the Rules of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services of Florida prohibits such a “cooling off period” and makes such a “cooling off period” unreasonable as a matter of law. The Supreme Court of Florida has not interpreted that rule. The rule, which is quoted in toto in the majority opinion, p. 920, in my view, does not necessarily prohibit a “cooling off period.” The language of the rule does not in literal terms say that an individual must be “immediately” released upon withdrawal of consent nor does it in so many words prohibit a “cooling off period.”
In a similar case, Rice v. Mercy Hospital, 318 So.2d 436 (Fla.App.1975), cert. denied, 330 So.2d 726 (Fla.1976), concerning a mental hospital’s alleged false imprisonment of a person who had voluntarily committed herself for treatment, the trial court had instructed the jury on the false imprisonment charge by defining the plaintiff’s statutory right to release upon request.2 After charging the jury on the statute, the trial court added, “... whether or not a voluntary patient has made a request for release in accordance with the statute I have just referred to, it [sic] is to be determined by you in accordance with the standards of medical and hospital practice prevailing in this and similar communities at the time in question.” Id. at 438. On appeal, the plaintiff challenged the instruction, stating that a reasonable man standard should have been applied on the request for release issue. The appellate court, although it did not hold that “a statute such as this which is so closely associated with the denial of personal liberties” must be read in light of a particular standard, id., noted that the parties had agreed that some standard should be applied, and the court concluded that the one chosen by the trial court was appropriate. Id. Thus, it may be fair to conclude that the Florida courts, even in cases involving statutory rights to release from institutions, tacitly approve a requirement that the jury consider the reasonableness of the defendant’s action.
The foregoing demonstrates, it is respectfully submitted, that there is substantial question as to what Florida law is on the decisive issues concerning this appeal. In this diversity case, in which Florida law is controlling, to paraphrase the majority opinion of Justice Douglas in Lehman Bros. v. Schein, 416 U.S. 386 at 391, 94 S.Ct. 1741 at 1744, 40 L.Ed.2d 215 (1974), resort to certification “would seem particularly appropriate in view of the novelty of the question and the great unsettlement of Florida law, Florida being a distant state. When federal judges in [Virginia] attempt to predict uncertain Florida law, they act, as we have referred to ourselves on this Court in matters of state law, as ‘outsiders’ lacking the common exposure to local law which comes from sitting in the jurisdiction.”
Although the Supreme Court has frequently deferred to a construction of state law made by a district court sitting in that state and affirmed by a court of appeals whose jurisdiction includes the state whose law is construed, see, e.g., Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 345-46 & 346-47 n. 10, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2077-78, 2078-79, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976), no particular expertise in Florida law can be claimed in this case either by the district judge who tried the case or by *925the members of this appellate panel. Even in situations in which the Supreme Court ordinarily defers to a federal court’s construction of state law, circumstances, which I submit exist here, may indicate a different course should be followed and require certification of the state law questions to the state courts. See Elkins v. Moreno, 435 U.S. 647, 662 n. 16, 98 S.Ct. 1338, 1347 n. 16, 55 L.Ed.2d 614 (1978).
It is a commonplace that illegal drug usage has severely disrupted, and in some cases destroyed, the lives of many youths in our present-day society. In response to such conditions, programs of varying degrees of effectiveness have been established, some of an experimental nature, to attempt to treat young persons who have become physiologically or psychologically addicted to the use of these drugs. Straight, Inc., the appellant herein, apparently is one such program which has been developed. The legal atmosphere within which those programs are allowed to perform their function in a particular state is a matter of paramount state importance and should be decided in the first instance by state courts. Id.
Certification of the state law questions involved herein is consistent with the criteria established by this court for such certification in Boyter v. C.I.R. Service, 668 F.2d 1382, 1385 (4th Cir.1981). There is no question of federal law present and undecided, the decision of which would be wholly dispositive of this case; on the contrary, the state law questions are dispositive of this federal litigation and must necessarily be resolved in the course of this litigation. Id.
Since Florida has a certification rule, permitting discretionary Florida Supreme Court review of certified questions from the federal courts, Florida Appellate Rule 9.150; Florida Constitution, Art. V, § 3(b)(6), I respectfully submit that the questions of Florida state law which I have referred to herein should be certified to that court.

. The court in Coley explained that if the arresting person has "arrest powers,” then, “in order to recover for false arrest of the person it must be shown that the restraint was unreasonable and ... not warranted under the circumstances.” 258 So.2d at 831. The appellee argues from Coley that unless the actions of the defendant come within the scope of the merchant or police privilege, the plaintiff does not bear the burden of proving unreasonableness. Appel-lee’s Brief at 20.

. The law at that time stated:
“(3) Right to Release on Application.—
(a) A voluntary patient who requests his release or whose release is requested in writing by his legal guardian, parent, spouse, or adult next of kin, shall be released forthwith, except that ...
1. ...
2. ...
3. if the head of the hospital, within the hours of the ensuing business day, from the receipt of the request, files in the office of the county judge in the county where such patient is situate certification that in his opinion the release of the patient would be unsafe for the patient or others, release may be postponed for as long as the county judge determines to be necessary for the commencement of proceedings for judicial hospitalization, but in no event for more than five days.”
Fla.Stat.Ann. § 394.20.