Williamson v. Glen Alum Coal Co.
| Decision Date | 15 April 1913 |
| Citation | 78 S.E. 94,72 W.Va. 288 |
| Parties | WILLIAMSON v. GLEN ALUM COAL CO. et al. |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
Submitted February 27, 1912.
Syllabus by the Court.
Where the act charged in a warrant issued by a justice amounts to no criminal offense, arrest and imprisonment under such warrant is illegal, and those who actively direct and cause the same are liable in the action for false imprisonment.
Illegal arrest and imprisonment, regardless of malice or probable cause, will sustain the action for false imprisonment.
The record of the case in which the arrest and imprisonment occurred, on appeal from the justice, showing the procedure therein and the dismissal thereof, is admissible as evidence tending to prove illegality of the arrest and imprisonment.
Error to Circuit Court, Mingo County.
Action by Simeon Williamson against the Glen Alum Coal Company and others. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants bring error. Affirmed.
Sheppard Goodykoontz & Scherr, of Williamson, for plaintiffs in error.
Marcum & Marcum, of Huntington, for defendant in error.
Defendants a coal company and its special police officer, caused and procured the arrest and imprisonment of plaintiff. Averring that the arrest and imprisonment were illegal, plaintiff sought damages by this action. He has judgment. What we shall say in a general way will sufficiently cover the points of error assigned.
The declaration plainly sets forth a case of false arrest and imprisonment. The evidence quite as plainly proves such a case. It fully warrants the verdict on which the judgment was entered. Nor do we find error in any ruling of the court during the trial.
That plaintiff committed no offense for which he could lawfully be arrested and imprisoned is clearly disclosed. He did nothing but throw an advertising hand bill into a lot, at one of the residence properties of the coal company. This may have been a technical civil trespass, but it was no criminal offense. Yet he was arrested on the spot, taken before a justice at the office of the coal company, fined, and in default of payment sent to the county jail. He was released from the imprisonment by the writ of habeas corpus. Whether a warrant of any kind existed at the time of the hearing before the justice appears from the facts and circumstances proved to have been an open question for jury determination. Defendants' evidence tends to prove the existence of a warrant, but there are circumstances tending otherwise. Conceding that there was such a warrant as the one which defendants relied on at the trial of this action, we find that it furnishes no justification for the arrest and imprisonment. It is wholly irregular and void. It charges no criminal offense. It vouches no jurisdiction of the justice in the premises. It charges plaintiff with an act which is no criminal offense under the laws of this state. Its charge is that plaintiff "did commit a misdr by trespassing on real estate by scatering bills on the property of the Glen Alum Coal Company against the peace and dignity of the state." Plainly no criminal offense is stated here--no jurisdiction of the justice shown. "It does not follow that, because plaintiff was a trespasser in the eye of the law relating to a civil action for damages against him, he was guilty of a criminal offense." Davis v. Railway Co., 61 W.Va. 250, 56 S.E. 401, 9 L. R. A. (N. S.) 993. So there was absolutely no warrant of law backing the arrest and imprisonment of plaintiff. No wonder that he was speedily released by the writ of habeas corpus.
"The constituent elements of false...
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