Wilson v. Hellard
| Decision Date | 25 March 1960 |
| Citation | 333 S.W.2d 777 |
| Parties | Everett WILSON, Appellant, v. Wallie HELLARD et al., Appellees. James B. WELBOURN, Appellant, v. Wallie HELLARD et al., Appellees. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
T. T. Burchell, Pleaz Wm. Mobley, Manchester, for appellants.
John C. Little McKee, for appellees.
Separate actions for false imprisonment brought by the appellants against the Sheriff of Jackson County and two of his deputies were consolidated for purposes of trial and resulted in a verdict for the defendants. As best we can gather from a section in the middle of the brief styled 'Points and Authorities' the errors assigned by appellants are that the trial court failed to give a peremptory in their favor and gave an improper charge in its second instruction to the jury. Since there was no motion for a peremptory it is necessary only that the latter contention be considered.
It appears from the evidence that in the late afternoon of March 20, 1957, the appellees had gone to the home of one Madden with a warrant for his arrest on a charge of public drunkenness. Madden had left home when the officers arrived and was walking down the road toward Owsley County, a distance of some 2 or 3 miles away, carrying a paper sack containing a fifth of whiskey, a pint of moonshine, and a quart of beer. This course of travel took him past the home of the appellants, Wilson and Welbourn (the latter being Wilson's son-in-law). Wilson and Welbourn say they had been at work logging all day and had come home at about 5:00 P.M. Wilson's wife sent them to the store, and as they left in Wilson's car (Wilson driving and Welbourn in the back seat) they discovered Madden on the road and gave him a lift on his journey toward Owsley County. They didn't quite make it, as the officers hove into view just after Madden had got into the front seat next to Wilson, the driver.
According to the occupants of the Wilson car, they knew nothing of the proximity of the officers until, a mile or so farther on, Welbourn heard a shot or shots from behind. The Sheriff says that as he drove up he saw the Wilson car back out of the drive with Madden aboard and proceed down the gravel road about 75 yards in front of his, the Sheriff's, car; that he followed, expecting to pull up next to Wilson and stop him at a point half a mile distant where a stop sign marked the intersection of the gravel road with Route 30, a blacktop road; that instead of stopping, Wilson ran through the sign and proceeded down the blacktop road, ignoring the Sheriff's siren and red flasher; that he (the Sheriff), observing that the speed of Wilson's car was accelerating, ordered one of the deputies to fire a warning shot in the air, which was done; and that the Wilson car wrecked after proceeding about a half mile on the blacktop highway. The Wilson car had developed a flat tire and ran into the ditch, evidently as the result of a bullet hole in the tire.
After the wreck but before the officers arrived Madden broke the bottles of whiskey and beer in the...
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Louisville Taxicab & Transfer Co. v. Holsclaw Transfer Co.
...a peremptory instruction waives the right to a directed verdict. Rockcastle Gas Co. v. Horn, 241 Ky. 398, 44 S.W.2d 273; Wilson v. Hellard, Ky., 333 S.W.2d 777. A party cannot supply the omission or avoid the waiver by moving for a new trial on the ground that the verdict is contrary to the......