Citations
- 303 S.W.2d 510
Full opinion text
McDONALD, Chief Justice.
This is an appeal by Marsalis Motors, a corporation, one of the defendants in the Trial Court, from a judgment against it based upon slander and false arrest. (Parties will be referred to as in the Trial Court). Plaintiff J. V. Simmons sued defendants Marsalis Motors and two individual defendants not involved in this appeal, to wit, P. K. Hodson, Jr., and Gordon Hamilton, for $19,000 general damages by reason of false arrest, imprisonment and slander per se, and for an additional $41,000 exemplary damages. Trial was to a jury, which, in answer to special issues, found: 1) That defendant Gordon Hamilton (sales manager of Marsalis Motors), in the presence and hearing of plaintiff, stated in substance: “There is the thief and this is the stolen automobile.” 2) That defendant Gordon Hamilton, in the presence and hearing of other parties, made such statement. 3) That defendant Hamilton, at the time he made such statement, pointed to plaintiff when such statement was made. 4) That the statement was false. 5) That defendant Hamilton was acting in the scope and course of his employment when he made such statement. 6) That defendant Marsalis Motors authorized defendant Hamilton to make such statement. 7) That such statement was approved by defendant Marsalis Motors. 8) That $5,000 will reasonably compensate plaintiff for the actual damage sustained by him by reason of such remarks. 9) That defendant Hamilton acted with malice in making the remarks. 10) That plaintiff is entitled to $7,000 exemplary damages. 11) That plaintiff was arrested by police officers. 12) That such arrest was not warranted. 13) That such arrest was because of defendant Hamilton’s acts and statements. 14) That $1,000 would fairly compensate plaintiff for his injuries caused by his arrest. 15) That the occurrences to plaintiff were not due to careless acts or omissions on his part. 16) That the police officers were not acting of their own volition in arresting plaintiff. 17) That defendant Hamilton did not advise the police officers that he was not concerned with plaintiff but was only interested in the automobile plaintiff was driving.
Both sides filed motions for judgment, after which the Trial Court granted defendant P. K. Hodson Jr.’s .motion for judgment non obstante, and granted plaintiff’s motion for judgment on the verdict against defendants Marsalis Motors and Gordon Hamilton, in the amount of $9,000 (requiring a remittitur by plaintiff of $4,-000). Defendant Marsalis Motors only has appealed.
The record before us reflects that plaintiff J. V. Simmons, about August 1, 1955, purchased a new Mercury automobile from defendant Marsalis Motors, trading in his old car on same; that he took possession -of such new automobile and went about his business; that he carried such automobile back to Marsalis Motors in about ten days for the 200 mile checkup; that in the latter part of August, after an inventory, Marsalis Motors, due to erroneous record-keeping by them, thought that they had an automobile missing, and reported a car of the same description as the car plaintiff purchased, to the Dallas police department as stolen. On 27 August, defendant Hamilton, Marsalis Motors’ sales manager, and defendant Hodson, Marsalis Motors’ president, were standing in front of Marsalis Motors’ building when plaintiff drove by. Defendant Hamilton said to defendant Hodson that “there goes the stolen car”. Hamilton and Hodson got in a car a