Lentz v. Raum

Citations

• 59 Pa. Super. 260
• 1915 Pa. Super. LEXIS 60

Syllabus

<p>Appeals — Assignments of error — Opinion of court below.</p> <p>1. An assignment of error to a portion of the opinion of the court below discharging a rule for judgment n. o. v. is irregular and will not be considered.</p> <p>2. On an appeal from a judgment on a verdict in an action for false arrest, an assignment of error is not self-sustaining which merely avers that “the court erred in submitting the question of probable cause to the jury.”</p> <p>False imprisonment — Requisites of action — Detention of person.</p> <p>3. To constitute the injury of false imprisonment the two requisites are (1) the detention' of the person, and (2) the unlawfulness of such detention. A previous judicial proceeding not being an essential element of the injury, the rule applicable to malicious prosecution that the termination of the proceeding is a condition precedent to the institution of the action for the injury, does not apply to a false imprisonment which, in fact, was not based on a judicial proceeding.</p> <p>False arrest — Action against policeman — Conflicting testimony — Probable cause — Case for jury.</p> <p>4. In an action against a policeman for a false arrest the defendant testified that he had a general order to arrest anyone who attempted to peddle fruit or fish and blow a horn upon the streets of a city after ten o’clock at night; that shortly after this hour the plaintiff, a huckster, was notified by and promised the defendant to refrain from blowing his horn; that after he had passed from defendant’s view, the plaintiff, or some one in his wagon, blew the horn again, whereupon the defendant arrested him and took him to the station house where he was detained for a time. Plaintiff testified that the notification was given him before ten o’clock, and that his horn was not blown afterwards. Held, (1) that the question as to whether plaintiff blew his horn was, on the conflicting testimony, for the jury; (2) that the question whether the defendant had probable caus