O'QUIN v. Charles Stores
| Decision Date | 12 August 1949 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 427G. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of North Carolina |
| Parties | O'QUIN v. CHARLES STORES. |
Brooks, McLendon, Brim & Holderness, Greensboro, N. C., for defendant.
This is a motion for a new trial under Rule 59 and for judgment in its favor notwithstanding the verdict under Rule 50 (b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. After notice, a hearing on the motion was held, arguments were heard and written briefs were filed.
The plaintiff L. R. O'Quin sued the defendant for $15,000.00 actual damages and $15,000.00 punitive damages growing out of an alleged malicious prosecution. The case was tried before a jury which found that the defendant procured the institution of a criminal prosecution against the plaintiff in the Municipal Court of Greensboro under a warrant charging him with the larceny and receiving a blouse, property of Charles Stores of the value of $3.00; want of probable cause, that it was malicious and upon which plaintiff was acquitted.
A brief statement of the facts will assist in arriving at the law applicable on this motion.
L. R. O'Quin was a veteran in the recent war and after its termination he remained in the employ of the Army at Fort Bregg where he kept records and handled the payroll in his branch of the service amounting to thousands of dollars. He held the position a long time and was receiving $250.00 per month and his personnel rating was excellent. Desiring to become an accredited Accountant and realizing the need of more education, he gave up this job and entered Kings Business College in Greensboro as a student under the G.I. bill where he could graduate in two years. He was a married man and lived with his wife and child some distance South of Greensboro. He travelled in his car to school and back, returning home for lunch. Mr. James, a neighbor who was then a clerk in Myers Department Store, rode with him every morning and back home to lunch and then back to Greensboro, but he seldom got released from his work to return home with O'Quin who got out of school at four. James often put articles in O'Quin's car to take home. The car was parked regularly in Edwards parking lot about two blocks from Charles Stores.
On September 14, 1948, when O'Quin arrived at his car after school closed that day, he casually observed a lady's blouse on the front seat of his car but thought nothing of it as he assumed that his neighbor James had put it there. When he arrived at home he parked his car on the side of a public road, leaving the blouse there assuming that James would pick it up when he came that night. However, when James came to O'Quin's that night to borrow a shovel, O'Quin asked James if he had gotten that blouse out of the car and James then told him he knew nothing of it. Thereafter O'Quin got the blouse, carried it to the house and he and his wife examined it, saw it was pink and size 40; that it had a tag on it with the name of Charles Stores and for exchange in five days. They discussed the matter and concluded that it was an advertising scheme of Charles Stores to draw customers into its store. Mrs. O'Quin worked on night shift at Carters Fabrics and slept during the day except on Saturday.
A neighbor Mrs. Campbell happened to be over at O'Quins the next morning, Wednesday September 15, 1948, and invited Mrs. O'Quin to go with her to town but she declined as it was her bedtime. She asked Mrs. Campbell if she would carry a blouse for her to Charles Stores and exchange it for any color except pink which she had never worn and for a size 36, to which Mrs. Campbell agreed.
Mrs. Campbell presented the blouse to Mrs. King, clerk in charge of the blouse department, and told her she brought the blouse for a neighbor to be exchanged. Mrs. King asked for the sales ticket and, being informed that she did not have it, called the general manager of the store, Mr. George Carp. Carp asked Mrs. Campbell where she got the blouse and she said Mrs. O'Quin asked her to bring it for exchange. The manager said Mrs. O'Quin would have to come in person to make the exchange and wrote out a receipt to Mrs. O'Quin for the blouse for exchange only and told her to give that to Mrs. O'Quin.
On the following Saturday, Mr. and Mrs. L. R. O'Quin went to the Charles Stores and talked with Mr. Carp, presenting the receipt for the blouse. Carp asked them about it, and said the store had been bothered a lot lately by shop lifters, that the blouse did not appear to have been sold by the store as the tag was still on it. Tags consisted of two parts, the lower part to be detached when the article was sold. The O'Quins stated that if it was stolen they wanted nothing to do with it. L. R. O'Quin then explained in detail how he found it on the front seat of his car, explained about the custom of James, and after finding it was not the property of James, concluded it was just an advertising scheme for customers. Carp told them he believed them and felt sure they were innocent but since they had been so nice and intelligent and cooperative, he would give them a blouse anyway; that the police were working on some shop lifters and he thought the officers would have them rounded up by next Saturday and for them to keep the receipt and come back then to get the blouse. This was the last extended conversation between them and it is very significant that the Manager testified in this trial that on the day of arrest of L. R. O'Quin he told Officer Jarvis he did not believe they had a case against the O'Quins.
James testified to the facts as O'Quin in regard to the discovery of the blouse, the conversation that night. Also O'Quin went over to the country store operated by L. E. Coltrano where he explained to him about the blouse. Coltrano testified that O'Quin told him about finding the blouse in his car that evening when he came from school but when James came over there that night he said it was not his, and so he said he thought it was put in his car as an advertisement to draw him to trade at Charles Stores. James and Coltrano were men of good character and wholly disinterested. O'Quin proved an excellent character by them, and also by witnesses from the community where he lived until he entered the Army among whom were J. C. Bullock, a merchant and farmer, R. G. Johnson, a religious field worker and former teacher of O'Quin in the 9th and 10th grades, J. B. Collins, a farmer and builder, and P. A. Powell, a merchant.
On Saturday, Oct. 15, 1948, the O'Quins came to Greensboro. L. R. O'Quin kept a couple of puppies while Mrs. O'Quin went to purchase a coat for their daughter and went to Charles Stores to get the blouse. She asked Mr. Carp about the blouse and he told her to go to police headquarters and see Mr. Jarvis and tell him that he (Carp) sent her and he (Jarvis) would give her the blouse. After purchasing a child's coat she reported to her husband what Carp said, and they drove to City Hall and L. R. O'Quin told his wife to get the blouse while he circled the block and it was not convenient to park, besides he had the puppies in the car.
When Mrs. O'Quin arrived at Jarvis' office, no one was present except the clerk, Miss Cox. Mrs. O'Quin said she came to see the detective about the blouse; Miss Cox asked her what blouse and she said Mr. Carp, the Manager of Charles Stores, had referred her to Sergent Jarvis. Miss Cox then called Mr. Carp and told him there was a lady in the office and wanted to see about getting a blouse. Mr. Carp said he was familiar with that case and had talked to Sergent Jarvis and Money about it, and suspected the blouse was stolen. She said they would take care of it and Miss Cox then radioed Jarvis to come in. Detectives Jarvis and Money — in plain clothes — came and after talking to Mrs. O'Quin a few minutes, took her to the private detective room where they kept her a few minutes, perhaps twenty minutes in all. She insisted at all times the innocence of her and her husband, explained how her husband found the blouse in his car and their explanation to Mr. Carp and that Mr. Carp said he would give them a blouse — the detective asked her if she thought Charles would give her a blouse and she said he (Carp) said he would. The detective said he was going to arrest her anyway and she asked for her husband. The officers started downstairs to the warrant desk and met O'Quin coming after his wife. He wanted to know what she meant by staying so long and she said "these men have arrested me for stealing that blouse." He told the officers how he found it in his car and that his wife had nothing to do with it. Then the officers said they would release her and arrest him. They arrested him. One of them, Jarvis, called Carp over the `phone and asked if he still had the blouse in the O'Quin case and he said he did, and Jarvis told Carp they were going to prosecute Mr. O'Quin and that Mr. Carp did not tell him he did not think we had a case against O'Quin. Money signed the affidavit for the warrant charging defendant with larceny and receiving the blouse, value $3.00 property of Charles Stores on which warrant he was arrested and detained about 30 minutes until he could provide a bond of $100.00 for his appearance the following Tuesday.
The uncontradicted evidence shows that L. R. O'Quin became emotionally upset when the officers told him what they were doing; that he wept during the time of his detention, and while driving to his father's 75 miles away and that his father before getting to the house heard his crying and thought Mrs. L. R. O'Quin was dead, L. R. couldn't talk for 30 minutes.
At the trial Carp and Mrs. King were witnesses but neither would testify the blouse was stolen. Carp said it had been the property of Charles Stores and there was no record of its sale. Mrs. King said she missed it a day or two before Mrs. Campbell brought it for...
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