GRACE HUNTER, APPELLANT,
v.
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, INC., AND HARTFORD ACCIDENT AND INDEMNITY COMPANY, APPELLEES
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Grace Hunter appealed a directed verdict dismissing her malicious prosecution claim against the First Baptist Church and its insurer. The court reversed, holding that when facts establishing lack of probable cause are disputed, the question must go to a jury rather than be decided by directed verdict.
A directed verdict was improper. When facts relied upon to establish lack of probable cause in a malicious prosecution action are in dispute, their existence must be determined by a jury, not by the trial court through directed verdict.
[1] An action for malicious prosecution requires the absence of probable cause for the commencement or continuance of an original civil or criminal judicial proceeding.
[2] When facts establishing the lack of probable cause in a malicious prosecution action are in dispute, their existence must be determined by a jury.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“It is well settled in Florida that an action for malicious prosecution requires the absence of probable cause for the commencement or continuance of an original civil or criminal judicial proceeding.”
Establishes the legal standard for malicious prosecution claims in Florida
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceHunter moved to Orlando in 1971 and joined First Baptist Church. In February 1972, she became ill and church representatives visited her. On March 2, …
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MOUNTS, MARVIN, Jr., Associate Judge.
This is an appeal from a final judgment entered on a directed verdict for the defendants-appellees in a malicious prosecution action. According to the trial court’s final judgment, the attorneys stipulated that the court could consider evidence without the necessity of empaneling a jury for the purpose of defendant’s motion .for directed verdict. The appellant moved to Orlando sometime during the year 1971 and became a member of the First Baptist Church in Orlando. Sometime in February of 1972 the appellant became ill and called upon representatives of the church to render assistance to her. The representatives of the church visited her periodically. On March 2nd, 1972 two ministers and a lay member of the church executed a petition for an inquisition of incompetency. The County Judge summoned the committee and the committee found her to be mentally incompetent on March 12th, 1972. She was admitted and confined to the psychiatric ward of the Florida Hospital from March 3rd, 1972 until April 4th, 1972 and on said date, having been re-examined by the committee, she was found to be competent and discharged.
Appellant called as a witness one Naomi C. Armstead who managed an apartment in which appellant resided. She testified that she had known the appellant since October of ’71 and that she had seen appellant “quite frequent” since that time. She further testified that she had seen and observed the appellant during the first part of March, 1972 and that she did not observe any mental or emotional problems in the appellant; that she was very much mentally alert and that there were no symptoms indicating that appellant was mentally ill.
It is well settled in Florida that an action for malicious prosecution requires the absence of probable cause for the commencement or continuance of an original civil or criminal judicial proceeding. When the facts relied on by the plaintiff in a malicious prosecution action to establish the lack of probable cause on the part of the defendant are in dispute, their existence is to be determined by a jury. Priest v. Groover, 289 So. 2d 767 (Fla.App.1974) and Kilburn v. Davenport, 286 So. 2d 241 (Fla.App.1973). Calleja v. Wiley, 290 So. 2d 123 (Fla.App.1974).
In view of our ruling on this point, a full discussion of appellee’s second point (which insists that an essential prerequisite to the bringing of an action for malicious prosecution is a judicial or quasi-judicial determination on the merits in the plaintiff’s favor) is unnecessary. See, however, the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Fisher v. Payne, 93 Fla. 1085, 113 So. 378 (1927) that the person who is the victim of a proceeding to have him declared insane may maintain his action for malicious prosecution, although the result of the inquisition is the commitment of such person to the care and custody of an institution provided for that purpose. Fisher v. Payne, supra, at 381.
Reversed and remanded.
CROSS and MAGER, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Thomson McKINNON Sec., Inc. v. Light, 534 So. 2d 757 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988)…or civil judicial proceeding is an essential element in an action for malicious prosecution. Burns v. GCC Beverages, Inc., 502 So. 2d 1217 (Fla.1986); K-Mart Corp. v. Sellars, 387 So. 2d 552 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980); Hunter v. First Baptist Church, Inc., 294 So. 2d 355 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974). The Florida supreme court has defined probable cause with regard to a malicious prosecution action as “[a] reasonable ground of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong in themselves to warrant a cautious man in…
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Duncan v. Matilda Jeanne Germaine and Gerard A. Germaine, 330 So. 2d 479 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976)…son, 92 Fla. 278, 109 So. 623 (1926). If the facts relied on by a plaintiff to establish the absence of probable cause on the part of the defendant are in dispute, the existence of such facts is a jury question, Hunter v. First Baptist Church, Inc., 294 So. 2d 355 (4th DCA Fla. 1974), but as in all cases wherein the defendant has moved for a directed verdict, the legal sufficiency of the plaintiff’s evidence, whether the facts be admitted, or uncontradicted, or in dispute but viewed most favorably to the plai…
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Carnley v. Wilson, 300 So. 2d 291 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974)….1966), Stone v. Mamie, 189 So. 2d 908 (Fla.App.1966), Liabos v. Harman, 215 So. 2d 487 (Fla.App.1968), Kilburn v. Davenport, 286 So. 2d 241 (Fla.App.1973), Priest v. Groover, 289 So. 2d 767 (Fla.App. 1974), and Hunter v. First Baptist Church, Inc., 294 So. 2d 355 (Fla.App.1974). The facts in the case before this Court are not is dispute and the only question before the trial judge was whether or not the law enforcement officers at the time of the arrest of the plaintiff had probable cause to make the arrest…
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- Mayrelis Zamora v. City of Miami (Fla. 3d DCA 2024)
- Jeno F. Paulucci v. Fla. Power Corp., 286 So. 2d 241 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973)
- Priest v. C. A. Groover & the Great Atl. & Pac. Tea Co., Inc., 289 So. 2d 767 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974)
- Calleja v. Wiley, 290 So. 2d 123 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974)