Brown v. Town of Eustis

Decision Date22 November 1926
Citation92 Fla. 931,110 So. 873
PartiesBROWN v. TOWN OF EUSTIS.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

En Banc.

Error to Circuit Court, Lake County; J. C. B. Koonce, Judge.

Action by Paul B. Brown against the Town of Eustis. Judgment sustaining a demurrer to plaintiff's amended declaration and he brings error.

Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Municipality is not liable for torts of officers, unless committed in exercise of corporate power or duty imposed on municipality by law. A municipal corporation is not liable for the tortious acts committed by its officers as such, unless the acts complained of were committed in the exercise of some corporate power, or in the performance of some duty imposed upon the municipality by law.

City is not liable for unlawful, negligent, or prohibited acts by police officers in discharge of their duty. Police officers appointed by a city are not its agents or servants in such sense as to render it responsible for unlawful, negligent, or prohibited acts in the discharge of their public duties as policemen.

COUNSEL

J. R. Bedgood, of Eustis, for plaintiff in error.

Duncan & Hamlin, of Tavares, for defendant in error.

OPINION

CHILLINGWORTH Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff sues the municipality for an assualt alleged to have been perpetrated by one of its policemen. It is alleged in the amended declaration that, while the policeman was patrolling the streets, the policeman, without authority of law and without being requested or called, entered into a certain place of business and attempted to and did arrest the plaintiff; that plaintiff was in the building as a guest of the owners thereof; that the arrest was without cause malicious, and without provocation on the part of the plaintiff; that the policeman struck the plaintiff and inflicted certain injuries upon him; that the policeman while acting as such, after plaintiff had been felled by a blow from the policeman's revolver, took him to jail and kept him there for the remainder of the night, for all of which the plaintiff claims certain damages for the personal injuries alleged.

A judgment was entered for defendant on a demurrer to the amended declaration.

It is settled law in this state that a municipal corporation is not liable for the tortious acts committed by its officers as such, unless the acts complained of were committed in the exercise of some corporate power, or in the performance of some duty imposed upon the municipality by law, and that it is not liable for the unlawful or...

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14 cases
  • Cauley v. City of Jacksonville
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • July 16, 1981
    ...immunity was abolished. Florida accepted this view. Ballard v. City of Tampa, 124 Fla. 457, 168 So. 654 (1936); Brown v. City of Eustis, 92 Fla. 931, 110 So. 873 (1926); City of Orlando v. Pragg, 31 Fla. 111, 12 So. 368 (1893). In turn, a problem soon arose in determining which municipal fu......
  • Ballard v. City of Tampa
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • June 3, 1936
    ...of necessity, employ. See 46 A.L.R. 100, 101. This general principle is recognized, with a significant qualifification, in Brown v. Eustis, 92 Fla. 931, 110 So. 873. However, while there is some conflict of authorities, we of the opinion, and our own cases so hold, that the repaid and upkee......
  • City of Coral Gables v. Giblin, 59-643
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • March 13, 1961
    ...have made the arrest which it is charged that he made. One cannot delegate an authority which he does not possess. See Brown v. Town of Eustis, 92 Fla. 931, 110 So. 873. Both parties to this appeal, in varying degrees, urge the applicability of the decision of the Supreme Court of Florida i......
  • Town of Palm Beach v. Vlahos
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • October 22, 1943
    ... ... City of Orlando v. Pragg, supra, and Scott v. City of Tampa, ... supra, was again reaffirmed. See Brown v. Town of ... Eustis, 92 Fla. 931, 110 So. 873; Ballard v. City of ... Tampa, 124 Fla. 457, 168 So. 654; McCain v. Andrews ... and City of ... ...
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