Manuel v. Cassada
| Decision Date | 01 May 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 3641,3641 |
| Citation | 59 S.E.2d 47,190 Va. 906 |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | , 18 A.L.R.2d 395 STELIO MANUEL v. J. P. CASSADA, MAUDE M. CASSADA AND J. D. CASSADA, INDIVIDUALLY AND TRADING AS GRANBY GARAGE. Record |
Sidney H. Kelsey and R. J. Alfriend, III, for the plaintiff in error.
Preston P. Taylor and Broudy & Broudy, for the defendants in error.
Stelio Manuel filed a notice of motion for judgment against J. P. Cassada, Maude M. Cassada and J D. Cassada, partners trading as Granby Garage, to recover damages for malicious prosecution. The action was based on a warrant issued at the instance of Fred G. Williams, an employee of the defendants, charging Manuel with the felonious theft of an automobile. Under the warrant Manuel was apprehended and incarcerated in the jail in the city of Norfolk for several hours and until his discharge upon a hearing of the matter in the police court.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $7,500, but the trial court, being of opinion that no liability had been shown, set the verdict aside and entered a final judgment for the defendants. That judgment is before us on a writ of error awarded the plaintiff below. For convenience we shall refer to the parties according to the positions occupied by them, respectively, in the lower court.
One of the principal questions raised before us, and the only one we need discuss, is whether, in procuring the warrant, Williams was acting within the scope of his employment.
At the time of the incidents with which we are concerned the defendants operated an establishment known as Granby Garage at 1009 Granby street, in the city of Norfolk, where they stored automobiles for hire and sold gasoline. It was no part of their business to repair cars or to estimate the cost of repairs for others.
The defendant, J. D. Cassada, was in active charge of the business and was frequently there. J. P. Cassada infrequently came to the establishment, and Mrs. Maude M. Cassada, the latter's wife, had no part in the conduct of its affairs.
The business was under the general supervision and direction of Richard M. Keeling, as general manager, who was required to be there during the daytime.
During the night the business was in charge of Fred G. Williams, who came on duty shortly after seven o'clock. Williams had the title of night manager, and during his attendance upon the station was in charge of the personnel and assisted in waiting on the customers and otherwise protected and cared for the interests of his employers.
Stelio Manuel, the plaintiff, was twenty-five years of age and a resident of the city of Norfolk. During a part of the year 1948 he had been a student at the University of Miami, but in the late fall left that institution, returned to Norfolk, and was employed by a local dry-cleaning establishment. Despite a slight brush with the law in which he had been convicted of disorderly conduct, he bore a good reputation in the community.
In the early evening of Friday, December 24, 1948, Manuel, while driving along Thirteenth street, in the city of Norfolk, struck and slightly damaged a parked car owned by J. Willard Payne, Jr., a local pharmacist. As the result of the collision the radiator of the Manuel car began to leak and he took it to the nearest garage or service station, which happened to be that of the defendants, for an inspection. In the meantime he had requested a by-stander who had seen the collision to notify the police of the occurrence.
The evidence is not clear as to the sequence of events which transpired during the two hours which Manuel remained at the defendants' garage. The witnesses agree that during this time a police officer appeared and obtained from Manuel a report of the accident and his home address. Payne came up driving his car which had been damaged in the collision. A deputy high constable appeared with an attachment which Payne had sworn out and directed to be levied on the Manuel car to recover the asserted damages of $150. In the attachment 'J. D. and J. P. Cassada, trading as Granby Garage,' were named as co-defendants.
The deputy high constable levied the attachment on the Manuel car and told both Williams, who was then in charge of the garage, as well as Manuel, that the car was in the custody of Williams and could not be removed until the attachment claim had been settled and the car released under the orders of the high constable.
Manuel protested and called his attorney on the telephone. The attorney talked to the deputy high constable and inquired whether Payne, the attachment creditor, had given the bond required by Code of 1950, sec. 8-538 (Michie's Code of 1942, sec. 6384). Upon being informed that no such bond had been given, the attorney told the officer that he had no right to take possession of the car or to deprive Manuel of the right of driving it away. Despite this statement the officer stood upon his position that Manuel could not remove the car from the garage until the attachment had been satisfied, and gave the ignition key to Williams.
Manuel testified that when the Payne car arrived at the garage Williams inspected it, stated that he estimated the damages at $150, and that he (Manuel) would be required to deposit this amount plus $16 (the court costs of the attachment) before his car could be removed. According to Manuel, he protested that the amount claimed was excessive and refused to make the required deposit. Williams, on the other hand, denied having made any such estimate of the damages to the Payne car, or that he made a demand on Manuel for such a deposit.
Under the pretext of desiring to remove his house key from the bunch, Manuel procured the keys from Williams, to whom the officer had given them, got in the car and drove home.
Shortly after Manuel had left the garage with the car, Williams telephoned the police of the occurrence and an officer responded promptly. After getting a report from Williams the police broadcast an alarm that the Manuel car had been stolen from the garage.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 28, about 2:30 o'clock, while Williams was on duty, one of the police officers investigating the matter came by the garage and suggested that Williams procure a warrant for Manuel's arrest for stealing the car. Williams testified that the officer told him that unless he did this 'the garage would be responsible for the car. ' The officer did not deny this. Indeed, he testified that he offered to take and did take Williams to a justice of the peace for the purpose of procuring the warrant.
Although the investigating police officers testified that they had been searching in vain during the intervening four days for Manuel and the car, within three hours of the issuance of the warrant they went to his home, where Manuel answered the doorbell, served the warrant on him and placed him under arrest.
Manuel was taken to the local precinct station where he was booked for larceny of the automobile and was locked up in jail and held there until police court convened about nine o'clock on the same morning.
The evidence is uncontradicted that neither of the partners had actual knowledge of Manuel's arrest until a short time before a hearing was due in police court. Before the case was called counsel for J. D. Cassada, who was present with Williams, moved that it be dismissed, but since a felony charge was involved the police justice refused to do so until the circumstances had been related. Upon hearing the evidence the justice promptly dismissed the warrant.
In the meantime, on the preceding day, that is, on Monday, December 27, Manuel had paid for the damages to the Payne car, which amounted to $43, and the attachment proceeding had been dismissed. But information of such settlement and dismissal was not conveyed either to the police department or to Williams.
It is apparent from what has been said that the rights of the plaintiff were grossly violated as the result of the ignorance or stupidity of the deputy high constable, the police officers, and Williams. But the question we have to determine is whether the defendants can be held liable in damages for such conduct.
The uncontradicted evidence is that none of the partners had authorized Williams, or any of their employees, to procure a warrant for the arrest of any person because...
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...result of some neglect or wrong at the time and in respect to the very transaction out of which the injury arose ." Manuel v. Cassada , 190 Va. 906, 913, 59 S.E.2d 47 (1950) (emphasis in original) (citation omitted); see also Barnes v. Hampton , 149 Va. 740, 744-45, 141 S.E. 836 (1928) (sam......
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