Workman v. Freeman

• Decision Date: 02 May 1956
• Docket Number: No. A-5394,A-5394
• Citation: 155 Tex. 474,289 S.W.2d 910
• Parties: S. O. WORKMAN, Petitioner, v. Hugh FREEMAN, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 910

289 S.W.2d 910

155 Tex. 474

S. O. WORKMAN, Petitioner, v. Hugh FREEMAN, Respondent.

No. A-5394.

Supreme Court of Texas.

May 2, 1956.

G. A. Paquin, Denver City, for petitioner.

Morehead, Sharp & Boyd, Plainview, for respondent.

BREWSTER, Justice.

Petitioner Workman sued Hugh Freeman, Sheriff of Bailey County, Texas, respondent, and two of his deputies, for damages alleged to have been suffered from Workman's arrest by the deputies, which arrest the deputies assert was lawful because done in their official capacity as deputies of respondent Hugh Freeman.

Numerous special exceptions were filed by Hugh Freeman to Workman's second amended original petition, all urging that his pleading did not allege facts showing that the acts of the deputies were official acts for which the sheriff was liable. The trial court sustained these exceptions and 'plaintiff failing to show the court that he is able to amend in such manner as to assert a cause of action against said Hugh Freeman * * * this cause is dismissed as to said Hugh Freeman * * *.'

This was Workman's third effort to plead a cause of action.

On appeal the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed. 279 S.W.2d 486.

The sole point of error urges that the Court of Civil Appeals 'erred in holding that the acts of the deputies, complained of, were not official acts within the purview of Article 6870 of the Texas Revised Civil Statutes and were therefore not acts for which the sheriff could be held liable.'

Article 6870, R.S.1925, declares that sheriffs shall be responsible for the official acts of their deputies.

To decide the question at bar we have to make a summary of all the material fact allegations of Workman's second amended original petition and take them as true; and it is wholly idle to speculate on what he might have proved, since it has nothing whatever to do with the sufficiency of his pleadings. He alleged that while he was driving his car in the city limits of Muleshoe about 9:30 or 10:00 o'clock at night, he was ordered by defendant MacWagon to stop, so that it might be determined whether Workman was under the influence of intoxicating liquor; that Workman immediately complied and stood on the ground at the side of the car; that MacWagon ordered him to stand on one foot, which Workman refused to do; whereupon MacWagon grabbed plaintiff's arm and pulled it with great force, tearing out the sleeve; that he threatened to shoot plaintiff with a gun; and that all these acts of MacWagon were done while he believed he was performing his lawful duty as a deputy of Sheriff Hugh Freeman.

The petition further charged that MacWagon then sent his wife to get help from other deputies; that she returned shortly with Garland Freeman and another deputy; that plaintiff was standing by his car talking to MacWagon, when without warning Garland Freeman struck him on the side of his head above the left ear with a blunt instrument, which caused severe pain and suffering; that he then struck plaintiff several more times with the blunt instrument, on his head, shoulders, abdomen and face; that later when plaintiff was standing with his arms at his side and begging Garland Freeman not to hit him any more, Freeman struck him twice more with the same instrument with great force; that these acts of Garland Freeman were done to assist MacWagon in performing what both thought was a lawful arrest of plaintiff.

It was further alleged that Workman was taken to the county jail which was under the care and control of Hugh Freeman; that Hugh Freeman was aware of the plaintiff's presence therein; that the plaintiff was bleeding, but was refused medical aid, and was further refused the use of a first-aid packet, though the plaintiff requested both; and that plaintiff was forced to remain in jail for the balance of the night without medical aid.

Without a single allegation that Workman was to any extent whatever under the influence of intoxicating liquor or that the deputies had any probable cause to believe that he was, deputy MacWagon ordered Workman to stop and to alight from his car. According to Workman's pleading there was no resistance from him. On the contrary, he 'obeyed' MacWagon and stopped the car; he 'immediately' got out of the car when ordered by the deputy to do so, and stood on the ground beside his car. Then MacWagon requested him to stand on one foot. This, Workman alleges, was to determine whether he was under the influence of intoxicating liquor. That it was more than a request is shown by the allegation that when Workman declined, MacWagon grabbed his arm and 'pulled with great force' and threatened to 'shoot him with a gun'.

Then when Garland Freeman and another deputy arrived shortly on summons from MacWagon's wife, and when Workman was still standing at the side of his car talking to MacWagon, and without any warning (or any request or direction from MacWagon), Garland Freeman struck Workman on the side of his head with a blunt instrument, causing severe pain and suffering; after which he struck Workman several more times with the same instrument on his head, shoulders, abdomen and face; and thereafter and while Workman was standing with his arms at his side and begging Garland Freeman not to hit him any more, Freeman struck him twice more with the same instrument with great force.

Aside from stopping his car and alighting as MacWagon directed, the only other things Workman did was to refuse to stand on one foot, as part of the drunkenness test, and to beg Garland Freeman not to hit him any more. The only justification claimed in the petition is that everything was done in the deputies' capacity as deputies of Hugh Freeman, sheriff, but without any allegation that the sheriff directed their actions or ratified them after they were committed. (And it is significant that in his third effort to plead a case against Hugh Freeman, Workman makes no effort to plead that the deputies found Workman was in fact drunk or to any extent under the influence of intoxicating liquor.) In all these things, then, the acts of the deputies were unauthorized by law as required by King v. Brown, 100 Tex. 109, 113, 94 S.W. 328, and not official, and the sheriff was not liable therefor. This is the holding in Maddox v. Hudgeons, 31 Tex.Civ.App. 291, 72 S.W. 414, error denied, as well as in other cases cited by the Court of Civil Appeals. Other pertinent authorities are Taylor v. Stanford, 229 S.W.2d 427, no writ history, and Sheppard v. Gill, 58 S.W.2d 168; Id., 126 Tex. 603, 90 S.W.2d 563. See, also, 38 Tex.Jur., p. 452, § 19, and authorities there cited.

Reverting briefly to the pleadings, it was alleged that Workman was finally taken to the county jail, which was under the control of Hugh Freeman. According to the allegations, this was after the events attending Workman's arrest, which occurred sometime after 9:30 or 10:00 o'clock at night. Although it is alleged that Hugh Freeman 'was aware of' Workman's presence in the county jail, there is no allegation that the sheriff knew anything about the circumstances of his arrest nor anything about any need for medical attention. Nor is there any allegation that the sheriff was guilty of any undue delay the next morning in finding out the facts about Workman's being in jail or in taking such appropriate action as the facts required. There is a fairly suggested inference of a negative answer to these points in Workman's allegation that he 'was forced to remain in the aforesaid jail for the balance of the night * * *.' (Italics ours.) Under those allegations (or absence of allegations) no liability could arise under any inference that the sheriff ratified any of the unlawful acts of the deputies, as alleged by Workman.

It has been suggested that under the allegations of the second amended original petition Workman alleged a case of false imprisonment against the Sheriff. There was no attempt to allege any such thing, as will appear from a reference to the allegations of the petition as outlined above. Moreover, by reference to his motion for rehearing in the Court of Civil Appeals Workman says: 'We readily admit that this is a case which is not classed as an arrest and false imprisonment by a deputy who acted without a lawful warrant, but the facts clearly indicate that the deputies herein were acting with legal authority.' If Workman wanted to pitch his case on the theory of legal arrest, he most clearly had the right to do so, and it is not the province of this court to deny him the right.

We affirm the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals.

WILSON, J., dissents.

SMITH, Justice.

I respectfully dissent.

Can it be said that the acts of the deputies were private in nature, and without a trial can this Court hold, as a matter of law, that there was no misfeasance in the official conduct of the deputies and can it be said that the sheriff is not liable, independent of the actions of the deputies? I think not. It is possible that at the close of plaintiff's evidence, the respondent, Hugh Freeman, would be entitled to an instructed verdict, but this does not mean that it was proper for the trial court to sustain special exceptions, which, when read, will be found to be rather vague and indefinite themselves. Article 6870, Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes of Texas, provides that 'sheriffs shall be responsible for the official acts of their deputies, and they shall have power to require from their deputies bond and security; and they shall have the same remedies against their deputies and sureties as any person can have against a sheriff and his sureties.' The pleaded facts in this case show that the deputies were acting in an official capacity when they stopped the...