Calwell v. The City of Boone

• Decision Date: 09 October 1879
• Citation: 2 N.W. 614,51 Iowa 687
• Parties: CALWELL v. THE CITY OF BOONE
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

2 N.W. 614

51 Iowa 687

CALWELL v. THE CITY OF BOONE

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

October 9, 1879

Appeal from Boone Circuit Court.

ACTION for damages alleged to have been sustained by reason of an assault and battery committed by one Butcher, and also for damages for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. The petition alleges, in substance, that at the time of the act complained of Butcher was the duly appointed deputy marshal of the defendant city, and as such discharged a revolver at him, struck him with a policeman's billy, and arrested and handcuffed him; that he did so under the pretense of enforcing an ordinance of the city, providing for the punishment of persons being drunk upon the streets of the city to the annoyance of the citizens; that the plaintiff was not in fact drunk, as the defendant city well knew; that nevertheless, the defendant ratified the acts of the deputy marshal and caused the plaintiff to be imprisoned, and maliciously, and without probable cause, prosecuted him for the alleged offense, of which offense he was finally acquitted. The petition further states that the deputy was a person of violent temper and intemperate habits, and an unfit person to hold the office of deputy marshal, all which was well known to the defendant.

The defendant demurred to the petition. The court sustained the demurrer, and rendered judgment thereon. The plaintiff appeals.

AFFIRMED.

Holmes & Reynolds and C. C. Cole, for appellant.

Henderson & Hall and I. N. Kidder, for appellee.

OPINION

ADAMS, J.

The police regulations of a city are not made and enforced in the interest of the city in its corporate capacity, but in the interest of the public. A city is not liable, therefore, for the acts of its officers in attempting to enforce such regulations. The question involved in this case arose in Buttrick v. City of Lowell, 1 Allen 172. BIGELOW Ch. J., said: "Police officers can in no sense be regarded as the agents or servants of the city. Their duties are of a public nature. Their appointment is devolved on cities and towns by the Legislature, as a convenient mode of exercising a function of government; but this does not render them liable for their unlawful or negligent acts;" following Hafford v. City of New Bedford, 16 Gray 297. The same doctrine was held in Town of Odell v Schroeder, 58 Ill. 353. See, also, as tending to support it, Ogg v. City of Lansing, 35 Iowa 495; ...