Halliburton-Arbott Co. v. Hodge
| Decision Date | 02 April 1935 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 25191 |
| Citation | 44 P.2d 122,172 Okla. 175,1935 OK 354 |
| Parties | HALLIBURTON-ARBOTT CO. v. HODGE |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 1. False Imprisonment - Liability Though no Physical Restraint Used.
Physical restraint is not essential to false imprisonment, if the words and conduct are such as to induce a reasonable apprehension that resistance or attempted flight would be futile. Evidence examined, and held sufficient to go to the jury on the issue.
2. Same - Liability for Acts of Special Agent Under Contract to Detect Irregularities of Employees.
One may not employ or contract with a special agent to detect the irregularities of his employees, and thus obtain all the benefit of surveillance and prosecution of offenders, and then escape liability for false imprisonment by said special agent on the ground that said agent is an independent contractor. Especially is this true when the servants of the defendant join or aid in the commission of the false imprisonment, and thereby the agent becomes the servant of the defendant for the particular purpose, even though he may be an independent contractor for other purposes.
3. Pleading - Amendment to Petition Presenting no New Allegations but Claiming Exemplary Damages - Requiring Defendant to Answer in Five Days Held not Abuse of Discretion.
Where an amendment to a petition presents no new allegations of fact, but merely puts the defendant on notice that exemplary damages will be claimed, and the defendant is notified thereof 19 days prior to trial, and is given five days in which to answer said amendment, which does not materially change the issues, it is not an abuse of discretion to deny defendant the opportunity to plead to the amendment other than by answer.
4. Damages - Amount of Damages Recovered for False Imprisonment Held not Excessive Indicating Absence of Fair Trial.
$1,000 actual damages and $3,000 exemplary damages, under the facts in the case, in compensation for and punishment against the commission of false imprisonment, are not so excessive as to indicate that the verdict was reached as the result of passion and prejudice.
5. Trial - Instruction as to Reasonableness of Damages to Be Awarded Held Properly Refused.
It is not error to refuse a defendant's requested instruction to the effect that "in all cases damages must be reasonable, and if your verdict is for plaintiff, the damages allowed by you must be reasonable", notwithstanding section 10001, O. S. 1931, where the court did give an instruction to the effect that "You will fix the amount of plaintiff's recovery at such a sum of money as under the evidence will fairly and reasonably compensate her."
6. False Imprisonment - Physical Injury not Essential to Liability.
In an action for false imprisonment it is unnecessary to prove physical injury in addition to mental suffering.
Appeal from District Court, Tulsa County; Thurman S. Hurst, Judge.
Action by Daisy Hodge against Sears, Roebuck & Company and Halliburton-Abbott Company, corporations, for false imprisonment. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant Halliburton-Abbott Company appeals. Affirmed.
Ramsey, deMeules, Martin & Logan, for plaintiff in error.
Biddison, Campbell & Biddison and Harry Campbell, Jr., for defendant in error.
¶1 The plaintiff, Daisy Hodge, sued the Halliburto-Abbott Company, a corporation operating a department store in Tulsa, to recover damages on account of false imprisonment. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for $1,000 actual damages and $3,000 exemplary damages. Upon consideration of defendant's motion for new trial, the court ordered that a new trial should be had unless plaintiff should remit half of the punitive damages, whereupon plaintiff filed her remittitur of $1,500. Judgment was then rendered for $1,000 actual damages and $1,500 punitive damages, motion for new trial was overruled, and defendant appeals.
¶2 The facts are rather extensive. A mercantile detective agency by the name of Willmark Service System, Inc., operates out of New York and contracts with large retail stores over the entire country to check the faithfulness, efficiency, and honesty of the store clerks. The Willmark Service System, Inc., had such a contract with the defendant's business affiliate, Sears, Roebuck & Company, which it appears owns or has an interest in the defendant's store.
¶3 A crew of four representatives of the Willmark Service System, Inc., visited Tulsa and stopped at the same hotel. Two of this crew were women described as "professional shoppers." Separately these women visited the defendant's store and made purchases of merchandise from the plaintiff, who was working there as an extra clerk during a sale. Plaintiff in each instance placed the merchandise in a paper sack and returned the shopper her change, and the usual merchandise ticket was placed in the sack with the merchandise. Then the shoppers bought picture cords and paid plaintiff the exact purchase price, making it unnecessary for plaintiff to return them any change. On these latter purchases the shoppers observed that plaintiff did not furnish them with any merchandise tickets.
¶4 Then the shoppers, in each instance, returned to the hotel and reported the transaction to the crew manager, Mr. Gunther, and his assistant, Mr. Dreher, making penciled notation of the transaction on the back of the purchase slip. Mr. Gunther then inspected the cash register at the store, and also the carbon sheets in the plaintiff's sales book, and found no evidence of the plaintiff's having recorded the sales of the picture cords. It appears from the evidence that one general cash register was used in that department and that there was a rush on, and that 20 or 30 girls were using this machine at the same time. They had three or four keys and appliances to push and pull and plaintiff had not been instructed concerning the use of this machine. She testified that on one of her sales earlier that morning she had made a sale of 30 cents, but had "rung it up" as $30, and that some confusion was encountered in clearing the mistake. It is unnecessary to further narrate this portion of the case, due to the important fact that during the trial the defendant's attorney stated:
¶5 A few hours after the sale the plaintiff was told by the defendant's floor manager that Mr. Kay, the superintendent of the Halliburton-Abbott Company store, desired to see her in his office on the fifth floor. She did not know Mr. Kay nor just which was his office. She went to the fifth floor and at a desk she saw a girl, to whom she said, "I am Miss Hodge." The girl, pointing, replied. "In there." Plaintiff then walked in the door, closed it and found an irregularly shaped room. She walked around a corner and there noticed two men, whom she had never before seen. Plaintiff addressed Gunther, saying. The strange man said, "Sit down", plaintiff took her seat on the opposite side of the table and for a while there was silence, but suddenly Gunther opened a drawer, pulled out a package, and slamming it on the table so that the merchandise which she had sold to one of the women shoppers flew out of it and into her lap, inquired, "Did you ever see that before?" Plaintiff told him that she had and that she had* sold it. Gunther then repeated the same acts and words in connection with the other package of merchandise. He then stated that she had not accounted for the money. She vehemently denied having taken it, and offered to let him search her, and told him where her good shoes and pocket book were, in the dressing room, and suggested that he search those. A prolonged conversation ensued, in which (plaintiff testified) Gunther became very angry, screaming loudly at her, and repeatedly directing Dreher to "go see if those men have come"; that this happened at least five times, and Dreher would leave the room and return shortly without making any reply. Gunther would also say to Dreher, "See if those men have come and bring in those affidavits." When plaintiff asked him what men were coming, he replied, "You will find out what men are coming when they get here." It appears that these were affidavits which they desired plaintiff to sign, admitting her guilt, which she denied. Gunther said, "If you had been decent about it and acknowledged this, we would have been easy on you * * * you haven't been, and now we are going to fix you." Gunther kept opening a drawer and "pushing those things", presumably push buttons, and the plaintiff was generally impressed that policemen were coming for her. Finally the plaintiff said "I am leaving here," to which Gunther replied, "You are not, sit down." This continued for some while, and plaintiff testified that she was afraid to try to leave the room and that she feared if she did leave it would only make it more hopeless if the two policemen, whom she was expecting, took hold of her and marched her out of the store. She was in the room about 30 minutes. Finally she conceived the idea of running away when Dreher should next leave the room. This she did. When she emerged from the room, crying, the girl at the desk said to her, "Those damn fools, what have they done?", and this girl directed her to Mr. Kay, the defendant's superintendent. It serves no purpose to here detail the condition thus produced in plaintiff, who could not leave the store for more than an hour thereafter, and who continued in a hysterical condition until in the night, causing her throat to swell and making it impossible for her to breathe except through artificial manipulation thereof.
¶6 When she became...
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