Wade v. Campbell
| Decision Date | 26 June 1922 |
| Citation | 243 S.W. 248,211 Mo.App. 274 |
| Parties | ELLA WADE, Respondent, v. SAM B. CAMPBELL, COATES HOTEL COMPANY, A corporation, Appellant |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Jackson County.--Hon. Thos. B Buckner, Judge.
REVERSED.
Judgment reversed.
R. B Kirwan for respondent.
Gerson B. Silverman for appellant.
Plaintiff, alleging false imprisonment as the basis of her cause of action, brought this suit for $ 5000 damages against the Coates Hotel Company, a corporation operating in Kansas City the hotel known as the Coates House, and also against Sam B. Campbell its Manager. At the close of the evidence each defendant separately demurred, but both were overruled and the case was sent to the jury.
It returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, Sam B. Campbell, but found for plaintiff as against the Coates Hotel Company and assessed damages against said defendant at the sum of $ 500. The hotel company has appealed.
Plaintiff, a negro girl, came from Chicago to Kansas City in July, 1919. After staying at a private residence for three weeks she went to the Hotel Metropole where she did "maid work" for four or five weeks. Then she went to the Coates House where she was day maid on the second floor, but later at her request she was changed to night maid and worked all over the house wherever she was sent. In that capacity she had the use of the housekeeper's bunch of pass keys by which access could be had to all the rooms in the house.
After having been at the hotel for about three weeks, these pass keys disappeared or were missing. Plaintiff did not know what became of them. She remembered having them between six and eight o'clock on the evening they disappeared. The last she remembered having them was in a room of fifth floor where she hurriedly made ready a room recently vacated but which was immediately thereafter wanted by a new guest. She did not remember bringing them down from that room. When later that evening she went to do some work on the first and second floors she missed the keys, and, thinking the housekeeper had them, she spoke to her about them. The housekeeper said she did not have them but that she saw them in the Linen Room about 9 or 9:30 o'clock that evening when she went on an inspection tour of that floor.
While they were talking about this, the Manager, Mr. Campbell, came in and asked what was the matter. He was told by plaintiff that the keys were missing; that she remembered having them that evening on the fifth floor but did not remember bringing them down and that she thought she left them in the room on the fifth floor. He directed her to go upstairs and look for them, suggesting that perhaps she dropped them, but that doubtless they could be found in the morning and not to disturb any guests that night about the matter. He helped search the linen room for them. The search for the keys proving fruitless, the Manager said and remarked to the housekeeper, Mrs. Richardson, "You should have had them when you went over the floor at 9:30."
This was Monday evening. Tuesday evening the housekeeper called the plaintiff into her room saying the detective wanted to see her. According to the evidence of plaintiff herself, the Manager, Mr. Campbell, the housekeeper and a man whom plaintiff did not know, were in there, and this man said to her in the presence of Campbell that he was the house detective. According to Campbell, who was placed upon the witness stand by plaintiff, he was not in the room at the time.
Plaintiff says the detective said to her, "We want to know what you know about the keys." Plaintiff replied, "I hope you don't think I have got them." The detective said,
The next afternoon about 3:30, plaintiff says she was called by the house keeper and told that some one wanted to speak to her. She complied and there met two detectives, one of whom was the same man who had said he was the house detective; that he said to her, "You have got those keys and I want you to give them up." Upon plaintiff's saying she didn't have them, he replied, "If you don't tell where they are, we are going to arrest you." She replied they would have to do so then as she could not tell where they were because she didn't know. The two men then took her to the station and locked her up where she was kept for forty-eight hours and then discharged by the police judge. She says Mr. Campbell was not present at the time of this conversation and arrest.
All of the evidence in relation to the alleged cause of action comes from witnesses placed upon the stand by plaintiff, so that none of the testimony bearing upon the case is from defendant's witnesses as the only evidence introduced by defendant was the deposition of-plaintiff taken prior to the trial and some record evidence relating to a receivership for the Hotel Company.
Plaintiff placed upon the stand one of the men who arrested her Weitkam by name. He testified that he was a member of the police force of Kansas City; that he was called to the Hotel by the Phil Kirk, Detective Agency; that he went there and learned from the detective working on the matter about the loss of the keys and that plaintiff was the last one to have them. He says he suggested that they take her to the police station and have the Chief talk to her, which they did; that the detective working on the case was not the house detective but was a private detective from the Phil Kirk Detective Agency; that she was brought to the station and booked for investigation; that...
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