Merimee v. Brumfield

• Citation: 397 N.E.2d 315
• Decision Date: 11 December 1979
• Docket Number: No. 1-578A106,1-578A106
• Parties: Joseph MERIMEE, Appellant (Defendant below), v. Hazel BRUMFIELD, Executrix of the Estate of Clifford P. Brumfield, Deceased, Appellee (Plaintiff below).
• Court: Court of Appeals of Indiana

Page 315

397 N.E.2d 315

Joseph MERIMEE, Appellant (Defendant below), v. Hazel BRUMFIELD, Executrix of the Estate of Clifford P Brumfield, Deceased, Appellee (Plaintiff below).

No. 1-578A106.

Court of Appeals of Indiana, First District.

Dec. 11, 1979.

Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., Darrell K. Diamond, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellant.

J. David Huber, Zoercher, Becker & Huber, Tell City, for appellee.

NEAL, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment against the appellant, Joseph Merimee, for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

We reverse.

The appeal raises two questions for our decision:

1. Whether a police officer is immune from liability in an action for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution under the Tort Claims Act.

2. Whether an action for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution survives the death from unrelated causes of the plaintiff therein as to damages other than medical expenses and lost wages.

This cause of action was instituted by Clifford P. Brumfield on August 15, 1975, alleging damages arising out of an occurrence on July 27, 1974, for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution against the appellant-defendant, Joseph Merimee, an Indiana State Police Officer. Prior to trial, on July 22, 1976, Clifford P. Brumfield died from causes not connected with the litigation. Thereafter, on November 24, 1976, Brumfield's personal representative, Hazel Brumfield, Executrix, was substituted as party plaintiff. The cause was tried before a jury on October 24, 1977, and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff-appellee on both paragraphs of the complaint. The present appeal was thereafter commenced.

We will first address ourselves to Issue No. 2, that is, the survival of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment under the Indiana survival statute, Ind. Code 34-1-1-1. This is a case of first impression in Indiana.

At common law, actions Ex delicto did not survive the death of either party. Over the years the rule has been materially modified by both statutory enactments and court decisions. Some review of the prior Indiana survival statutes and cases is necessary to understand the problem. In 1852 the Indiana Legislature enacted a survival statute which read as follows:

"A cause of action arising out of An injury to the person dies with the person of either party, Except in cases in which an action is given for an injury causing the Death of any person, and actions for Seduction and False imprisonment." (Emphasis added.)

This survival statute continued in effect until 1881 when the legislature amended it and provided as follows:

"A cause of action arising out of An injury to the person dies with the person of either party, Except in cases in which an action is given for an injury causing the Death of any person, and actions for Seduction, false imprisonment, and Malicious prosecution."

The 1881 survival statute remained in force until it was again modified in 1937, and excepting changes made in later years as to the elements of damages and the amount of damages recoverable, it remains the same. The present survival statute is set forth in Ind. Code 34-1-1-1, and is as follows:

"All causes of action shall survive, and may be brought, notwithstanding the death of the person entitled or liable to such action, by or against the representative of the deceased party, except actions for personal injuries to the deceased party, which shall survive only to the extent provided herein. Any action contemplated in this section or in section 6 of this act may be brought, or the court, on motion, may allow the action to be continued, by or against the legal representatives or successors in interest of the deceased. Every such action shall be deemed to be a continued action, and therefore accrued to such representatives or successors at the time it would have accrued to the deceased if he had survived. If any such action is continued against the legal representatives or successors of the defendant, a notice shall be served on him as in the case of an original notice. If any action has been commenced against the decedent prior to his death, the same shall continue by substituting his personal representatives as in other actions surviving the defendant's death; in event the action be brought subsequent to the death of the party against whom the cause existed, then the same shall be prosecuted as other claims against said decedent's estate. Provided however, That when a person receives personal injuries caused by the wrongful act or omission of another and thereafter dies from causes other than said personal injuries so received, the personal representative of the person so injured may maintain an action against the wrongdoer to recover damages resulting from such injuries, if the person so injured might have maintained such action, had he or she lived; but provided, further, that the personal representative of said injured person shall be permitted to recover only the reasonable medical, hospital and nursing expense and loss of income of said injured person, resulting from such injury, from the date of the injury to the date of his death."

The focus of the problem is directed to the meaning of the words "personal injuries." The statute provides that actions for "personal injuries" shall survive only in a limited way and damages recoverable for "personal injuries" are limited to medically related damages and loss of income. The appellant contends that the term "personal injuries" should be construed broadly to include all actions which peculiarly affect the individual, such as libel, slander, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and invasion of privacy, and thus, argues the appellant, be subject to the exception contained in the statute. Appellee, on the other hand, asserts that the term "personal injuries" should receive a restricted interpretation to include only injuries to the physical body, and therefore actions for libel, slander, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and invasion of privacy would be included in actions which survive in full.

In defense of her position appellee contends that no bodily injury is required as elements of the torts of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. She points out that certain phrases in the proviso of the statute, " . . . when a person receives 'personal injuries' 27 27 27 and dies from causes other than said personal injuries so received . . .", and the further proviso of the statute which limits recovery to reasonable medically related damages and loss of income, suggest to the mind the concept of a person being physically hurt. She argues, therefore, that it was the intention of the legislature that the actions of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment were not, in this context, to be encompassed in the words "personal injuries," and the proviso or exception was to be limited to bodily injury.

No Indiana authority deciding this question has been cited, and our research has disclosed none. The cases on survival of actions in other jurisdictions on this point are of little aid in interpreting the Indiana survival statute. An examination of survival statutes in other states reveals that they are distinguishable in important respects from the Indiana statute. The case law in other states interpreting their statutes is likewise varied. Some courts under their survival statutes permit the survival of actions for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment, and other courts, interpreting their own survival statutes, hold that such actions abate upon the death of the plaintiff. Policy considerations vary. Some jurisdictions and authorities base their decisions upon the argument that justice does not require a windfall to the plaintiff's heirs by way of compensation for an...