DocketNumber: 16774
Citation Numbers: 35 Ga. App. 302, 1926 Ga. App. LEXIS 702, 133 S.E. 42
Judges: Jenkins
Filed Date: 4/20/1926
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 11/8/2024
(After stating the foregoing facts.) In an action for false arrest and imprisonment complaint is made by the plaintiff as to the following excerpt from the charge to the jury covering the right to make an arrest without a warrant: ,. “The law requires, as a general rule, to arrest a person, there must be some legal process issued; that is to say, there .should be a warrant sworn out to arrest a party having committed a crime or misdemeanor. But such arrest may be justifiable if the officer of the law making the arrest, or the person seeking the .arrest to be made, sees the crime committed,—committed in the presence of the' officer or the person seeking the arrest; or if not committed in the presence of th,e officer, if there is about to be a substantial failure of justice, or such emergency as would require prompt action on the part of the officer of the law, or this person seeking the process of the law, in immediately taking custody and control of the party whose arrest or imprisonment was sought.” The ground of plaintiff’s complaint as to this excerpt is that it is not a true statement of the law, and was calculated to mislead the jury. The Penal Code (1910), § 917, provides that “an arrest may be made by an officer under a warrant, or without a warrant if the offense is committed in his presence, or if the offender is endeavoring to escape, or for other cause there is likely to be a failure of justice for want of an officer to issue a warrant.” Section 921 provides that “a private person may arrest an offender, if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge; and if the offense is a felony, and the offender is escaping, or attempting to
The other special ground of exception is to the following excerpt .from the charge to the jury, covering the right to make an arrest without a warrant: “If you believe that this plaintiff, at the time she was arrested, informed these police officers she intended to kill defendant, and they arrested her to prevent her from doing that, they would be justified, under the law, in taking her into custody, and if 'she made this threat in the presence .of Mr. Kurfees (the defendant), and you believe, under the' evidence, that he had reasonable ground to fear that she would kill him, that then this invocation of the aid of the officers, to take her into custody, to prevent her from doing that would be justifiable.” The ground of the plaintiff’s complaint as to this excerpt is that it is not a correct statement of the law, and that it expresses an opin
The verdict finding ample support in the evidence, and having the approval of the trial judge, and there being no error in the proceedings, it was not error for the court to overrule the motion for a new trial.
Judgment affirmed.