Court Opinion

ID: 9476140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:48:08.189418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:08.729664
License: Public Domain

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Chief Judge
(concurring).
Although I agree fully with the result the court reaches, I write separately to express my doubts as to its reasoning in conjunction with Lt. Murphy’s liability for false imprisonment.
My colleagues would hold that because Lt. Murphy conditioned Hall’s release upon his executing an unconstitutional waiver, Hall’s continued imprisonment became, then and there and solely for that reason, illegal and “false.” In adopting this view, they do not discuss whether, at the time of Hall’s continued imprisonment (after he had refused to sign the waiver), the state had probable cause to imprison him. In my judgment, simply because Murphy conditioned Hall’s release upon the latter’s execution of an unconstitutional waiver did not inevitably cause Hall’s continued detention to constitute the tort of false imprisonment. Only if the police then lacked probable cause to hold Hall was that tort committed. See, e.g., Doggett v. Hooper, 306 Mass. 129, 133, 27 N.E.2d 737, 740 (1940) (“[t]he confinement of the plaintiff, having been authorized by law, would not furnish the basis for an action for false imprisonment”). My brothers’ theory, based exclusively on the illegal waiver, is ingenious, but they can point to no Massachusetts or federal case in support of it.
I prefer the following analysis: I believe the district court initially erred when it directed a verdict against Murphy on the false imprisonment claim, since probable cause had yet to be determined. That error was later rendered harmless, however, by the jury’s resolution of the probable cause issue against the police in a related claim.
For Hall to prevail under Massachusetts law on the false imprisonment claim, he needed to prove (1) that he was falsely imprisoned and (2) that Murphy assumed “an active part in the arrest or imprisonment.” Mass.Gen.Laws ch. 263, § 3 (1984). Neither below nor on appeal has any party seriously disputed that Murphy was the central figure in the police decision to imprison Hall. By directing a verdict, however, the district court improperly took from the jury the question of whether Hall had been falsely imprisoned, i.e., whether there was probable cause to imprison him This was a disputed issue of fact which should have been left to the jury.
The error became harmless, however, because the jury’s later verdict in context of the related false arrest claim made it clear that Hall was falsely imprisoned. By finding that Judge and Ochs had falsely arrested Hall, the jury necessarily rejected the officers’ claim that they had probable cause to make the arrest. See Mass.Gen.Laws ch. 231, § 94A (1984) (probable cause a defense to suit for false imprisonment). Murphy has never contended, nor are there grounds for his doing so, that events at the station house provided additional information of Hall’s alleged wrongdoing. Hall’s detention at the station house was, therefore, without probable cause and was illegal. By taking an active role in Hall’s station house detention, Murphy was liable for the false imprisonment pursuant to Mass.Gen.Laws ch. 263, § 3.
Murphy argues that he had no reason to know that Hall had been falsely arrested. I do not read Massachusetts law as providing him with a good faith defense. Up through the 1950’s, an officer who arrested someone for a misdemeanor would be liable for false imprisonment if the arrestee did not actually commit the offense. “A mistaken belief on the part of the actor, whether induced by mistake of law or of fact and however reasonable ... does not confer a privilege to arrest.” Muniz v. Mehlman, 327 Mass. 353, 358, 99 N.E.2d 37, 40 (1951). The Massachusetts legislature subsequently provided the arresting officer with a greater degree of protection, allowing him to defend against a false imprisonment suit arising out of a misdemeanor arrest by asserting probable cause. Mass.Gen.Laws ch. 231, § 94A. This provision, however, does not speak in terms of good faith.
By contrast, Mass.Gen.Laws ch. 236, § 3, provides a narrow good faith defense to *931those officers who, in the performance of their duties, participated in a false arrest. The statute, however, expressly carves out from the good faith protection those officers who .-assumed an “active part” in the arrest or imprisonment. Because Murphy falls into the latter category, Massachusetts law has not granted him a good faith defense to this false imprisonment suit. Due to the jury’s finding that a false arrest had in fact occurred, Murphy was properly held accountable to Hall for the resulting damages. Thus, I concur in the court’s upholding of the district court’s judgment against Murphy even though I do not agree with its rationale.