Sperier v. Ott

• Citation: 41 So. 323,116 La. 1087
• Decision Date: 07 May 1906
• Docket Number: 15,990
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana
• Parties: SPERIER v. OTT

41 So. 323

116 La. 1087

SPERIER v. OTT

No. 15,990

Supreme Court of Louisiana

May 7, 1906

Rehearing Denied June 4, 1906.

Appeal from Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans; George Henry Theard, Judge.

Action by Arthur A. Sperier, individually and as tutor of his minor children, against Luther D. Ott. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed in part and remanded, and judgment as amended affirmed.

Nicholas Eugene Humphrey, and E. Howard McCaleb, for appellant.

Robert O'Connor, for appellee.

LAND J. NICHOLLS, J., absent.

OPINION

LAND J.

This is a suit for damages grounded on the alleged unlawful and malicious arrest and incarceration of two minor sons of the plaintiff, without a warrant, at the instant of the defendant.

The petition alleges that the only pretext for such arrest was that said children with a number of others had carried away a few pieces of old and decayed boards from an abandoned shanty, which was being demolished by the defendant. The petition further alleges that the plaintiff offered to restore said boards, besides paying any value that defendant might place on them, at the same time protesting that the children were innocent of the violation of any law or ordinance, and had acted under the belief that they were at liberty to take the boards, since the men, women, and children of the neighborhood were doing the same thing. The petition further alleges that on the next day the defendant made an affidavit charging said two children and others with malicious mischief, and subsequently threatened to charge them with larceny if a monied settlement was not made, and that finally his children were tried and acquitted.

It is alleged that the boys, aged 13 and 11 years respectively were arrested by a police officer and placed in a patrol wagon in the presence of their mother, "who was so shocked and affected thereby that she became ill as the result and suffered both bodily and mental pain and anguish from the time of said arrest until the 7th of March, following, when petitioner was compelled to remove her to the Louisiana Retreat, where she continued to suffer, and where on the 18th day of March she died of a hemorrhage of the brain after seven weeks of the most excruciating bodily pain and mental anguish."

The petition further alleges that, at the time of the arrest, the wife and mother was in perfect health, and that the shock then received by her and her subsequent suffering and death were the direct result of the unlawful and malicious acts of the defendant.

The petition alleges damages to the husband in the sum of $ 10,000 and to his nine children in the sum of $ 10,000, occasioned by the death of the wife and mother.

The petition further alleges damages to the children as heirs of the mother, in the sum of $ 5,000 for bodily pain and mental anguish by her suffered.

The petition further alleges damages to the husband in the sum of $ 500 for medical and funeral expenses. The petition finally alleges that petitioner was entitled to recover the sum of $ 2,500 as exemplary damages for the...