STEPHEN SWAIN, APPELLANT,
v.
BERNIE HOWELL, ET AL., APPELLEES
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Stephen Swain, an inmate, appealed the dismissal of his complaint alleging that correctional officers denied him access to personal belongings during a transfer, causing him to forfeit tuition for a paralegal correspondence course. The court reversed the dismissal, finding that Swain adequately alleged bad faith and malicious intent necessary to state causes of action for denial of due process and conversion.
Swain's complaint adequately stated causes of action for conversion and denial of due process. The allegations that defendants acted in bad faith, with malicious intent, and exhibited wanton and willful disregard of human rights, safety, and property were sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.
[1] A complaint alleging that defendants acted in bad faith, with malicious intent, or with wanton and willful disregard of property rights is sufficient to state a cause of…
[2] Allegations of intentional and malicious purpose are sufficient to state a cause of action against individual officers.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Swain stated that the defendants acted 'in bad faith, with malicious intent, or in a manner exhibiting wanton and willful disregard of human rights, safety, and property, and outside the scope of their official capacity as agents of the Department of Corrections,' and that '[t]he conversion of Plaintiffs property was committed willfully, wrongfully, unlawfully, and maliciously.' These allegations were sufficient to state a cause of action.”
Demonstrates that Swain's complaint contained sufficient factual allegations of malicious intent and bad faith to satisfy the pleading requirements for conversion and denial of due process claims against individual defendants.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceSwain was transferred from Apalachee Correctional Institution to several other facilities without being allowed to collect his personal belongings des…
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ERVIN, Judge.
Appellant, Stephen Swain, appeals an order dismissing his complaint for failing to state a cause of action. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
Swain alleged that he was transferred from Apalachee Correctional Institution to several other facilities without being given the opportunity to collect some of his personal belongings, despite repeated requests for same. Because his belongings included time-limited materials from a paralegal correspondence course, Swain alleged he was terminated from the course and forfeited his $2,815 tuition fee. He sued five individual employees, asserting denial of due process and conversion. The trial court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a cause of action.
Appellees respond that the trial court properly dismissed the complaint, because Swain did not allege in his complaint that the defendants acted deliberately to deny the plaintiff of his property or that their actions were willful or in bad faith. We cannot agree. Swain stated that the defendants acted “in bad faith, with malicious intent, or in a manner exhibiting wanton and willful disregard of human rights, safety, and property, and outside the scope of their official capacity as agents of the Department of Corrections,” and that “[t]he conversion of Plaintiffs property was committed willfully, wrongfully, unlawfully, and maliciously.” These allegations were sufficient to state a cause of action. Witmer v. University of Fla. Police Dep’t, 610 So. 2d 87, 88 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992) (in an action for conversion, malicious prosecution, and conspiracy to maliciously prosecute, complaint that stated “that the defendant officers acted intentionally and with malicious purpose,” sufficiently stated a cause of action against defendants individually); Hansen v. State, 503 So. 2d 1324, 1326 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987) (insofar as complaint alleged that the officers “acted with malicious purpose and gross negligence,” it stated a cause of action against defendants individually). See also West v. Wainwright, 380 So. 2d 1338 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980).
REVERSED and REMANDED.
MICKLE and LAWRENCE, JJ., concur.
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Wright v. State, 675 So. 2d 1009 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996)…that the circumstances surrounding his arrest, which apparently interrupted the activity of which he stands convicted, would have provided police corroboration of his intoxicated state. These facts are strikingly similar to those in Young v. State, 661 So. 2d 406 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995), which also involved the entry of a plea and a claim that counsel had failed to pursue a defense of voluntary intoxication. The court reversed for an evidentiary hearing, finding that the attachments failed to demonstrate that th…
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Ervin Alphonso Bartley v. State, 689 So. 2d 372 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997)…se to specific intent crimes. E.g., Spivey v. State, 680 So. 2d 565 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). Allegations substantively indistinguishable from those made by appellant have repeatedly been held sufficient to state a claim for relief. E.g., Young v. State, 661 So. 2d 406 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Brunson v. State, 605 So. 2d 1006 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992). It is not necessary, as the trial court presumed, that a defendant point to record evidence of intoxication at the time of the alleged offense in order to state a legally su…
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McKINNEY v. State, 722 So. 2d 933 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998)…ufficiently pleads the deficient performance aspect of such a claim if he alleges that he either informed his attorney that he was intoxicated at the time of the offense, see Bartley v. State, 689 So. 2d 372, 373 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); Young v. State, 661 So. 2d 406 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Brunson v. State, 605 So. 2d 1006, 1007 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992), or told his attorney that he had a history of substance abuse that, together with record evidence of his intoxication at the time of the offense, should have alerted h…
Previewing 3 of 23 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Erling Knud Ove Hansen, Jr. v. State, 503 So. 2d 1324 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987)
- West v. Louie L. Wainwright, 380 So. 2d 1338 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980)
- Witmer v. Univ. OF Fla. Police Dep't, 610 So. 2d 87 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992)