Dunn v. Felty
| Decision Date | 21 June 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 2005-SC-000295-DG.,2005-SC-000295-DG. |
| Citation | 226 S.W.3d 68 |
| Parties | Tracey J. DUNN, Appellant v. Todd FELTY, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
This appeal involves an issue of first impression in Kentucky: when does the statute of limitations begin to run against an arrestee's claim for false imprisonment or false arrest? The trial court dismissed Tracey J. Dunn's claim of false imprisonment on the basis that it was barred by the applicable statute of limitations because Dunn filed his lawsuit more than a year after the arrest. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Because we conclude that the prevailing view among the jurisdictions—which is that the statute of limitations begins to run against an action for false imprisonment or false arrest when the alleged false imprisonment ends—is the proper approach, we affirm.
A related issue in this case is: when does the statute of limitations begin to run against an arrestee's claim for excessive force? In addition to Dunn's claim of false imprisonment, the trial court dismissed his claim of excessive force because it was filed more than a year after the arrest. We conclude that the statute of limitations on this claim begins to run at the time of arrest. Thus, we affirm on this issue as well.
The following statement of facts is based on the testimony at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to Dunn.
Dunn alleges that on November 7, 1999, he and his wife were asleep in their bed and the sound of neighbors arguing awoke them in the early morning. He looked outside his window and noticed that police cars were outside his condominium complex. Fearing that something had happened to his teenage step-daughter who was spending the night with a friend, he went outside to intercept the police officers. In so doing, he was only half-dressed, wearing sweatpants and flip-flops and a short-sleeved shirt pulled up on his arms but not yet pulled over his head.
Upon leaving his condominium, Dunn noticed a police officer, Officer Todd Felty, running up the stairwell toward him. Dunn alleges that he asked Officer Felty if he was there about his step-daughter when, without provocation, Officer Felty lost his composure and pulled the shirt, which Dunn was still in the process of putting on, off of Dunn's arms. At that point, Dunn stated to Officer Felty that he was going back inside and turned to leave, but Officer Felty grabbed Dunn's pants, causing Dunn to lose his balance. Officer Felty then charged Dunn into a wall, pinned him against it, choking him, and struck Dunn on the leg two times with his flashlight. Another officer eventually arrived and assisted Officer Felty in handcuffing Dunn. And two other officers who were at the scene conducted an investigation on the original reason for police dispatch, which was alleged domestic violence in Dunn's condominium called in by a downstairs neighbor.
Officer Felty placed Dunn under arrest. Dunn remained in custody until the early evening of November 7, 1999, when he was released on bail. His arraignment occurred the following day, November 8, 1999.
As a result of Officer Felty's use of force in the arrest, Dunn stated that he experienced pain in his wrists because the handcuffs were too tight, extensive bruising on his thigh from the flashlight strikes and pain in his neck.
Dunn was charged with harassment, menacing and resisting arrest. At Dunn's arraignment on November 8, 1999, he entered a plea of "not guilty" to the charges, and the case against Dunn proceeded to trial. On April 24, 2000, a Jefferson District Court jury acquitted Dunn on the menacing and resisting arrest charges. And the district court directed a verdict of acquittal on the harassment charge.
Dunn filed a complaint on April 4, 2001, against the City of Louisville, Officer Felty and the three other officers involved in his arrest. In his complaint, he asserted claims of (1) false imprisonment, (2) excessive force, (3) malicious prosecution, (4) outrageous conduct, and (5) failure to train and supervise. Upon motion of the defendants, the trial court ultimately dismissed the false imprisonment, excessive force and failure to supervise and train claims on the basis that the statute of limitations had run. In addition, the trial court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the outrageous conduct claim, and dismissed all officers except Felty as parties to the action. As to the remaining parties to the lawsuit, the City and Officer Felty, a jury returned a verdict in their favor on the malicious prosecution claim.
Dunn did not appeal from the adverse jury verdict. He did appeal, however, the trial court's order dismissing the false imprisonment, excessive force and failure to train and supervise claims. As to the claim against the City for failure to supervise and train, however, he only named Officer Felty as a party to the appeal; therefore, the Court of Appeals concluded that that claim was not before that court.
On the issue of when the statute of limitations begins to run on a cause of action for false arrest and excessive force, the Court of Appeals noted that the parties agreed that an action for false imprisonment and excessive force must be brought within one year. See KRS 413.140(1)(a),(c). The Court of Appeals concluded that the statute of limitations begins to run on the date of arrest or, at the latest, at the time of termination of imprisonment. Thus, the Court of Appeals affirmed the order of the Jefferson Circuit Court. This Court granted discretionary review on the issues of when the statute of limitations begins to run on the claims of false arrest and excessive force.
As observed by the Court of Appeals, the parties agree that the applicable statute of limitations on both the false imprisonment and the excessive force claims is one year as provided by KRS 413.140(1)(a),(c). Those provisions are as follows:
(1) The following actions shall be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrued:
(a) An action for an injury to the person of the plaintiff, or of her husband, his wife, child, ward, apprentice, or servant;
...
(c) An action for malicious prosecution, conspiracy, arrest, seduction, criminal conversation, or breach of promise of marriage;
To answer the question of when the statute of limitations begins to run—or, keeping with the language of KRS 413.140(1), when the cause of action accrued—against an arrestee's claim for false imprisonment or false arrest, we turn to the elements of the tort. False imprisonment is the intentional confinement or instigation of confinement of a plaintiff of which confinement the plaintiff is aware at the time. See Dan B. Dobbs, The Law of Torts § 36, p. 67 (2000). And "[f]alse arrest is a term that describes the setting for false imprisonment when it is committed by an officer or by one who claims the power to make an arrest." Id.
From this point forward, realizing that every confinement of a person is an imprisonment, whether it occurs in a prison or a house, we shall refer to the torts of false imprisonment and false arrest together as false imprisonment.
A law enforcement officer is liable for false imprisonment unless he or she enjoys a privilege or immunity to detain an individual. See id. § 37, p. 69. Two common examples of a law enforcement officer's privilege to detain an individual are (1) an arrest pursuant to a warrant or (2) an arrest without a warrant in which the officer has "probable cause, that is, reasonable objective grounds to believe that a crime was committed and that the plaintiff committed it." Id. § 83, p. 195; see also id. at § 36, p. 69; Lexington-Fayette Urban Co. Gov't v. Middleton, 555 S.W.2d 613, 619 (Ky.App.1977) (). The common element of both examples is that the detention was lawful as it occurred pursuant to legal process. In the case of false imprisonment, however, the common law, or the statutory law in some states, provides a remedy for a plaintiff's unlawful detention—that is, detention without legal process. See Wallace v. Kato, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1091, 1095, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2007) (citing W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts § 11, p. 54, § 119, pp. 885-886 (5th ed.1984)) and borrowing from the tort of false imprisonment to determine the accrual date on an action brought under 42 U.S.C.A. Section 1983 seeking damages from an unlawful arrest); see also Williams v. Smith, 179 Ga.App. 712, 348 S.E.2d 50, 52 (Ga.App.1986) ().
Turning from the elements of the tort of false imprisonment to the running of the statute of limitations on a false imprisonment claim, the United States Supreme Court recently provided persuasive guidance on the issue in Wallace.
In Wallace, the Supreme Court decided the issue of whether a suit was timely filed under § 1983, which sought damages for an arrest that violated the Fourth Amendment. See id. at 1094. While the Court looked to state law (Illinois) for the length of the statute of limitations (two years), it looked to common-law tort principles to determine the accrual date of the § 1983 cause of action. See id. at 1094-95. The Court reasoned that the cause of action most analogous to the claim before it was false imprisonment. See id. at 1095. The Court held that a lawsuit filed nine years after the plaintiff's...
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