Harris v. Kearney
Decision Date | 06 June 2001 |
Docket Number | No. 4D00-2784.,4D00-2784. |
Citation | 786 So.2d 1222 |
Parties | Elminer HARRIS, Appellant, v. Kathleen A. KEARNEY, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Children and Families (formerly H.R.S.), Appellee. |
Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Suzanne M. McLean of Webber, Hinden & McLean, P.A., Pembroke Pines, for appellant.
Bernard Lebedeker of Olds & Stephens, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
This is an appeal from a final judgment on the pleadings entered in favor of appellee, Kathleen Kearney ("Kearney") in her official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Children and Families f/k/a H.R.S. ("DCF"). We affirm the trial court's final judgment.
The amended complaint that gave rise to the judgment on appeal recited the following underlying factual allegations.
In 1988, appellant applied for public assistance by completing a food stamp application. In her application, Harris reported that she was temporarily employed. Later that year, appellant undertook new temporary employment at North Broward Community Hospital. Appellant reported her new employment to a DCF official at her monthly employment status meeting. At that meeting, the DCF representative advised appellant that she did not need to list her new employment on her food stamp application because she remained temporarily employed and her employment income had not increased.
A few months later, a new DCF official accused appellant of fraud when he learned that appellant had not listed her employment with the hospital on her previous applications. In May of 1990, DCF agents signed an affidavit of complaint asserting that appellant engaged in food stamp and public assistance fraud because she received overpayments due to her failure to report her hospital employment. DCF agents presented the affidavit to the State Attorney's Office which subsequently filed an information. Based upon the information, a warrant for appellant's arrest was issued. The warrant was never served.
In August of 1998, DCF sent a letter to appellant regarding the overpayments she received in 1989. After appellant denied the allegation, a DCF official informed her of the outstanding warrant. Appellant turned herself in at Palm Beach County Jail, where she was detained and arrested. The state attorney nolle prossed the charges a few weeks later.
Subsequent to her arrest, appellant filed a three count complaint, which she later amended, against DCF and two DCF employees. The amended complaint's first count for false arrest/imprisonment asserts that DCF agents swore out an arrest warrant and pointed out appellant as the perpetrator, requesting that appellant be arrested. As a result, appellant complains that the DCF agents directly procured her arrest and imprisonment, depriving her of her liberty for at least eight hours and causing her damage. Count II alleges DCF negligently supervised its agents, permitting those agents to initiate prosecutions, and causing appellant damage. The complaint states that DCF had a duty to exercise due care in the operational functions of its investigations, and to exercise care to ensure that its investigators did not commit patently illegal or negligent acts. Count III alleged a malicious prosecution count against the DCF employees in their individual capacities.1
Steinger, 760 So.2d 996, 997 (quoting Windle v. W.W. Windle Co., 731 So.2d 36, 37 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)).
As to Count I, appellant contends that she stated a cause of action for false arrest and false imprisonment because Kearney's agents "directly procured [her] arrest and imprisonment." Kearney responds that merely providing information to the authorities that a violation of the public assistance laws occurred is not sufficient to support an action for false arrest.
Merely providing information to the authorities that a violation of law occurred is not sufficient to support an action for false arrest. See Hudson v. Dykes, 402 So.2d 491, 492 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)
(. ) In this case, the DCF agents did nothing more than submit an affidavit of complaint to the State Attorney's Office indicating that appellant engaged in public assistance fraud. Such action, taken as true, does not rise to the level of instigating or directly procuring appellant's arrest under the standard enunciated by the first district in Hudson.
Next, appellant asserts that Count II of her complaint states a cause of action for negligent investigation of her alleged public assistance fraud. Kearney responds that the negligence claim fails because she owed no duty to appellant to maintain accurate records, and even if there was such a duty...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Navarro v. City of Riviera Beach
...directly or indirectly by procurement, in the unlawful restraint of another person against their will." Harris v. Kearney , 786 So.2d 1222, 1225 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). The Complaint does not allege that ASA Miller had any involvement in Plaintiff's detention, nor does it allege that she had a......
-
Greer v. Ivey
...clerk did not owe a duty to the plaintiff to inform the sheriff that the plaintiff's warrant had been set aside); Harris v. Kearney, 786 So.2d 1222, 1226 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (concluding that how the Secretary of the Department of Children and Families "supervis[ed] her agents in enforcing t......
-
Harder v. Edwards, s. 4D14–1732
...information to law enforcement, without more, such action does not constitute false imprisonment. See also Harris v. Kearney, 786 So.2d 1222, 1225 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (stating that “[m]erely providing information to the authorities that a violation of law occurred is not sufficient to suppo......
-
Valladares v. Bank of Am. Corp.
...412 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009) (applying the qualified privilege to slander arising from false reports made to police); Harris v. Kearney, 786 So.2d 1222, 1225 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (reasoning under Pokorny that there was no false imprisonment claim against Department of Children and Family agents wh......
-
Physical torts
...false arrest. Moore v. Department of Corrections, State of Florida , 833 So.2d 822, 824 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). See Also Harris v. Kearney , 786 So.2d 1222, 1225 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). 2. Fla. Stat. §812.015(3)(c): See Fla. Stat. §812.015(3)(c) (exemption from liability for false arrest). 3. Hon......