Wallace v. Thornton, 92-CA-00958-SCT

• Decision Date: 07 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. 92-CA-00958-SCT,92-CA-00958-SCT
• Citation: 672 So.2d 724
• Parties: Deborah F. WALLACE v. Walter M. THORNTON, Sr., D/B/A Thornton Bonding Company and Levon Free.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 724

672 So.2d 724

Deborah F. WALLACE v. Walter M. THORNTON, Sr., D/B/A Thornton Bonding Company and Levon Free.

No. 92-CA-00958-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 7, 1996.

Appeal No. 9053732 from Judgment dated July 15, 1992, Kathy King Jackson, Ruling Judge, Jackson County Circuit Court.

Chester D. Nicholson and Nicholson & Gail D. Nicholson, Nicholson & Nicholson, Gulfport, for appellant.

George S. Shaddock, Pascagoula, for appellee.

Before PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN and McRAE, JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

This case arises from a July 15, 1992 jury verdict of the Jackson County Circuit Court awarding Deborah Wallace $1,000.00 in damages from Walter M. Thornton, Sr., ¹ d/b/a Thornton Bonding Company, and his employee, Lavon Free. Wallace contends that the award is inadequate to compensate her for the injuries she sustained as the result of an October 1, 1990 incident wherein she was mistakenly apprehended in her Gautier home by two bail bondsmen and taken to Thornton Bonding Agency in Pascagoula against her will. Finding that the circuit court erred in granting Thornton's motion for a directed verdict on the charge of false imprisonment and in denying Wallace's requested jury instruction on punitive damages, we reverse and remand for a new trial consistent with this opinion.

I.

Lavon Free and Doug Coon were employed as bail bondsmen by Walter Thornton, d/b/a Thornton Bonding Company. On October 1, 1990, they were looking for Deborah Renee Tabuyo, who had jumped bond on charges from the Pascagoula City Court. Both were acquainted with the 5'7"', 230 pound Tabuyo and carried her photograph with them. Checking a lead from some contacts as to her whereabouts, the two went to the Belle Ville Apartments in nearby Gautier.

Free's contacts pointed them to an apartment, where, without confirming the identity of its occupant, they began knocking on the door. There was no response. Free went over to the apartment office, where he told Yvonne Fuller, the manager, that he wanted to get into Tabuyo's apartment. After she refused to give him the key, Free threatened to kick down the apartment door.

Coon testified that Free told him that he had telephoned Thornton after Fuller refused to let him in the apartment. Free then told him "to kick the G.D. door in--that Walter had told him to kick the door in and get her."

Coon kicked in the door. Once inside, he stated that he went upstairs where he had heard crying. He opened a bedroom door to find the 5'3"', 120 pound Deborah Wallace in a T-shirt and underpants with her two toddlers behind her. Coon testified that he then realized they had apprehended the wrong woman and informed Free of their mistake.

Wallace testified that she had been napping after taking some cold medicine that left her groggy and sedated. She stated that Free was the first to come up the stairs; in her sedated state, she thought that he had a gun. Neither man identified himself nor looked at the identification she presented after she told them she was not Deborah Tabuyo. After Wallace was given a chance to dress and clean up her children, she testified that they told her, "You're coming with us, you have no choice. You are coming with us." She and the children got into the car. Coon testified that she was "pretty well upset" and indicated that she did not want to go with them.

Free contends that no force was involved in getting Wallace to leave with them. To the contrary, he told her that she would have to come with them to Thornton's office in Pascagoula to see about having her door repaired:

I said, "Ma'am, we was looking for a lady named Deborah Tabuyo." And I looked around at Doug and I said, "You done kicked the wrong door in, Buddy," just like that. Then she said, "What y'all going to do about my door?" I said, "Ma'am, I ain't got no money." I said, "There ain't but one man that can solve your problem getting your door fixed. That's Mr. Thornton. If you want to, you can ride down here with us or you can follow me in your car." She said, "I don't have a car and can't drive, but I want my door fixed." I said, "Well, we'll give you a ride down there and get your door fixed. You got to talk to him."

At the office, Coon testified that he and Free told Thornton what had happened and "[h]e said we shouldn't have put her in the car and brought her down here." He further stated as follows:

Q. All right. What else did Thornton say at that time?

A. Uh--he said to keep the stories, what Free told him. He said to keep to that story.

Q. What story was that?

A. That she wanted to come to the office and that we didn't make her come to the office, that she wanted to come to the office.

Q. Is that true? Did she want to come to the office?

A. No, sir. She didn't want to come.

Wallace testified that they spent about a half hour at Thornton's office, where no one seemed to know what to do about her situation. To add to the confusion, Deborah Tabuyo arrived at the same time as Wallace, Free and Coon. When they left, Wallace indicated that Coon admitted to her that they had made a mistake, offered to take her to the store on the way home and told her to call Thornton Bonding if she had any problems.

As a result of the incident, Wallace claimed that she felt "violated," and "like I wasn't safe; that anyone could come in and do anything to me." She lost weight and suffered from nightmares. Distressed, she sought counseling and was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Wallace filed a complaint against Thornton and his agents, Lavon Free and Doug Coon, ² on November 6, 1990. She raised allegations of false imprisonment, assault, invasion of privacy and negligence in connection with the October incident, seeking $250,000.00 in compensatory damages and $250,000.00 in punitive damages.

A jury trial was held on July 13 and 14, 1992. The circuit court granted Thornton's motion for a directed verdict on the issue of false imprisonment. The jury then returned a verdict in favor of Wallace, awarding her $1,000.00 in compensatory damages. Wallace's July 21, 1992 motion for an additur, or in the alternative, for a new trial, was overruled.

II.

Wallace first asserts that the circuit court erred in granting Thornton's motion for a directed verdict on the charge of false imprisonment when a jury question existed as to whether she went willingly with Coon and Free to Thornton's office in Pascagoula or whether she was taken there against her will.

When determining the propriety of a motion for a directed verdict, this Court, like the circuit court, is required to consider the evidence in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, giving her the benefit of every favorable inference which reasonably may be drawn from the evidence. Lewis v. Griffith, 664 So.2d 177, 187 (Miss.1995); Wall v. Swilley, 562 So.2d 1252, 1256 (Miss.1990). In Regency Nissan, Inc. v. Jenkins, No. 92-CA-00052-SCT, --- So.2d ---- (Miss. October 12, 1995), we articulated the proper standard when there is conflicting testimony:

When contradictory testimony exists, this Court will "defer to the jury, which determines the weight and worth of testimony and credibility of the witness at trial." Odom v. Roberts, 606 So.2d 114, 118 (Miss.1992). This Court "will not reverse a jury verdict unless it is against the overwhelming weight of evidence and credible testimony." Gifford v. Four-County Elec. Power Ass'n, 615 So.2d 1166, 1171 (Miss.1992). Regency, who moved for a directed verdict, was required to meet this standard with the evidence and inferences drawn therefrom viewed in a light most favorable to Jenkins. Eaton v. Porter, 645 So.2d 1323, 1325-26 (Miss.1994).

Factual disputes arise when "one party swears to one version of the matter in issue and another says the opposite." Clark v. Moore Memorial United Methodist Church, 538 So.2d 760, 762 (Miss.1989). A directed verdict is inappropriate when questions of fact exist. Illinois Central R.R. v. White, 610 So.2d 308, 314 (Miss.1992).

Regency, --- So.2d at ---- (emphasis added).

Our standard of review requires that the circuit court, like this Court, look at the evidence in a light most favorable to Deborah Wallace and to give her the benefit of every doubt. In granting Thornton's motion for a directed verdict on the issue of false imprisonment, however, the circuit court stated:

On the issue of false imprisonment, I've gone over the testimony of the notes that I have and I know that plaintiff's counsel takes issue with my position that there has to be some sort of intentional act, but going over the testimony, I did not hear sufficient testimony to make me believe that this is a case of false imprisonment. The testimony, as the Court recalls, is that the plaintiff did not want to go with them but that she did. No one physically touched her. No one forced her into the car. Nobody told her she had to go with them. Mr. Coon testified that, as he recalled it, the only reason Mr. Free indicated to her that she had to go with him was to get the money to get her door fixed.

* * * * * *

My understanding of the law of false imprisonment is that, number one, the defendant or the person doing the imprisoning must have the intent to arrest or imprison the person. I don't think Mr. Free or, the testimony that I heard, Mr. Free or Mr. Coon intended to arrest this woman. What they wanted was to get her down there and get her paid for her door.

The circuit court's comments suggest to us that it was Coon's testimony and not Wallace's that was viewed in the most favorable light and given the benefit of every doubt.

The tort of false imprisonment has only two elements: (1) detention of the plaintiff and (2) that such detention was unlawful. Lee v. Alexander, 607 So.2d 30, 35 (Miss.1992); Page v. Wiggins, 595 So.2d 1291, 1294 (Miss.1992); Thornhill v. Wilson, 504 So.2d 1205, 1208 (Miss.1987). In Thornhill, we noted that the second element turns on whether, looking at the...