Georgia lawyers can recover damges for false arrests initiated by businesses
The Georgia Court of Appeals recently held that a person who was wrongfully arrested for not paying a restaurant bill could sue the restaurant and its manager for false imprisonment.
In Ferrell v. Mikula, 18 year-old Racquel Ferrell and 13 year-old Kristie Ferrell were arrested for not paying their bill after dining at Ruby Tuesdays. After eating, the girls left in their vehicle and were followed by an off duty police officer working as a security guard at Ruby Tuesday. Officers in marked police cars were notified and pulled the girls over. The girls were asked if they had any drugs or weapons in the vehicle and were then placed in the back of separate patrol cars in handcuffs. The arresting officers conferred with the security guard at which time they realized they had made a mistake. The security guard explained that he had been sent after Racquel’s vehicle by the restaurant’s manager, Christian Mikula, for not paying their bill, but Racquel and Kristie Ferrell did not match the description of the two people who had not paid their bill. After obtaining Racquel’s drivers license and information, the girls were set free.
Mikula had been tending to a man and woman around the age of 30 who were unhappy with their meals. Mikula briefly left their table at which time he was informed that the two had left without paying. He then saw a car leaving the parking lot and informed the security guard that he thought the occupants of the vehicle had not paid. The security guard followed the vehicle which turned out to be Racquel Ferrell’s. At the scene of the arrests, the security guard called the manager to get a description of the people who had not paid, and it was at that point that the mistake was realized. Racquel Farrell and Kristie Ferrell’s parents sued Ruby Tuesday and Mikula for false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring and training. The trial court granted Ruby Tuesday’s motion for summary judgment on the false imprisonment and negligent hiring claims and both defendants’ claims for emotional distress.
Ruby Tuesday argued that the claim of false imprisonment should be dismissed, since there was probable cause to arrest and no malice existed. The Georgia Court of Appeals disagreed by ruling that malice is not an element of false imprisonment. Furthermore, probable cause is not a defense to false imprisonment unlike the tort of malicious arrest which involves an arrest based on a warrant. Here, the alleged crime took place outside the officer’s immediate knowledge and without a warrant. This means there must be some exigent circumstance as proscribed by Georgia law for the arrest to be legal and for summary judgment to be proper. As there were no exigent circumstances, the Ferrells had established that the detention was unlawful.
The court then moved to the question of whether Mikula had caused the unlawful detention of the Ferrells. Generally, a defendant does not have to explicitly request an arrest to be liable of false imprisonment but only has to act in a way which procures an arrest. Mikula told the security guard that the people in the vehicle leaving the parking lot had not paid their bill although he did not know who was actually in the vehicle. He also knew that the security guard would detain the vehicle’s occupants but did nothing to stop that from happening. Thus, summary judgment for the defendants on the false imprisonment claim would be improper.
While the court granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment on the claims for negligent hiring and emotional distress, the ruling reaffirms the principle that a person who is wrongfully arrested may have a claim of false imprisonment against those who assisted officers in making the arrest.
Our personal injury lawyers have also been involved in several false arrest and malicious prosecution cases in Georgia. While these cases can be difficult to win, this decision may help us hold businesses responsible when they jump to conclusions about someone's guilt before they check all the facts.
