Coyne v. Nelson

VICKERS, J. pro tem.

Action for damages for false imprisonment. Judgment for plaintiff.

Plaintiff-respondent filed suit against the appellant Ebbert, a police officer, and several other defendants for damages for false imprisonment. After trial before the court without a jury, the plaintiff having dismissed as to the defendants Dan Nelson and L. M. Nevarez, the court gave judgment against the appellant’ and the defendants Michael Krempels and James Snyder for. $750, as compensatory damages, and against the appellant and the defendant Michael Krempels for $500, as punitive damages. Thereafter the appellant and these defendants moved for a new trial. The court denied such motions. From the judgment and the order denying a new trial Ebbert alone , appeals. The appellant attacks the judgment on the ground that the evidence does not support some of the findings and that the findings as to compensatory damages are irreconcilable.

The court found in part as follows: That the respondent, a real estate broker, was falsely accused by appellant (and other defendants) of stealing property and was falsely arrested and imprisoned by appellant against respondent’s will; that in so doing appellant did not believe respondent had committed any crime or have reasonable grounds or probable cause for so believing; that appellant acted maliciously and to plaintiff’s damage.

A reading of the reporter’s transcript discloses the following evidentiary facts which the court was entitled to believe: That for several years prior to May 14, 1948, respondent had

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been a successful real estate broker; that just prior to and on May 14, 1948, the defendants Krempels and Dan Nelson and the respondent were engaged in a complicated real estate transaction involving a motel in Atwater, California; that respondent was to receive a $3,000 commission from Krempels; that during the course thereof Krempels, through the respondent, exchanged certain diamonds for a house trailer (referred to generally by the witnesses as “the bus”), owned by one Lyton; that Lyton, at Krempels’ suggestion, delivered “the bus” to the respondent together with the pink slip therefor assigned in blank; that respondent thereupon executed and delivered his promissory note, dated May 3, 1948, in the sum of $4,500, to and in favor of Krempels and assigned to Krempels his $3,000 commission; that there was an understanding between Krempels and respondent that respondent would sell “the bus” and deliver the proceeds of the sale to Krempels; that shortly thereafter respondent brought “the bus” to Los Angeles and to San Fernando to find a buyer. It further appears that during the course of the transaction the respondent on April 11, 1948, executed and delivered his check in the sum of $10,000 to and in favor of Nelson and that at the time of the delivery thereof the respondent did not have sufficient funds in the bank, upon which the check was drawn, to meet the cheek but that he so informed Nelson and Krempels at the time of issuance and further informed them that he would obtain the necessary funds from another real estate transaction and would deposit them to cover the cheek; that shortly before May 14, 1948, the date of the claimed false imprisonment, the defendant Snyder was brought into the transaction with the intent of all parties that he would be substituted for and take the place of the respondent. It further appears that during the daytime of May 14, 1948, Krempels caused a police officer of the city of San Fernando to investigate the respondent, who was then living with his wife and children in “the bus” in that city, upon a charge that the respondent had stolen “the bus,” but that after a discussion with the respondent, during which he exhibited to that police officer the pink slip and his policy of insurance covering “the bus,” the officer informed Krempels that there was ho ground for an arrest of the respondent; that on the evening of the same day Krempels, Nelson and Snyder went to the office of Attorney Joseph Forno in Los Angeles and discussed some phases of the matter with him and at that