Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Fourth DCA on Malicious Prosecution

In Hickman v. Barclay’s International Realty, Inc. (4D08-115), the Fourth District affirmed the grant of summary judgment in a malicious prosecution action.

"In order to prove a cause of action for malicious prosecution a plaintiff must prove six elements: '1) the commencement of a judicial proceeding; 2) its legal causation by the present defendant against the plaintiff; 3) its bona fide termination in favor of the plaintiff; 4) the absence of probable cause for the prosecution; 5) malice; [and] 6) damages'.”

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Under these circumstances, the trial court correctly concluded that no material issues of fact remained on the issue of legal causation by the defendant. Although the accounts of the incident from appellant and appellee diverged on who did what to whom, there was no dispute that even under Hickman’s account Wyner would have justifiably believed that Hickman was trespassing when Wyner came upon him in his neighbor’s home.

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"The trial court also granted summary judgment on Hickman’s second cause of action which alleged that Wyner owed Hickman a duty to report the incident truthfully to the police...As the trial court recognized, this is not a recognized cause of action in Florida. “Florida courts have never recognized a separate tort for ‘negligently’ swearing out a warrant for arrest. Such cases may be brought only in the form of civil suits for malicious prosecution.” Pokorny v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Largo, 382 So. 2d 678, 683 (Fla. 1980).

1 comments:

Unknown said...

The Broward county SA office has been prosecuting cases with no evidance or witness's and judge Imperato is blackmailing defendants on house arrest that if they do not chance their plea, they will be put back on it. I am a victim of this, my nutjob ex and his friend were coming after me one night, I called the police for the 3rd time and they arrested me! They said my ex said I tried to hit him with my car. After 9 months of being schuffled around the courthouse, never waiving my right to a speedy, they put me on house arrest and Judge Imperato told me she take it off if I changed my plea. I was up for a promotion at work so I did, I was blackmailed, prosecuted with no evidance, and my civil rights were violated. What can I do? How can I contact?

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