Court of Appeal
| Author | Grant v. Coles |
| Date | 01 July 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834000400306 |
| Published date | 01 July 1940 |
| Subject Matter | Court of Appeal |
Court
of
Appeal
:\L\LIUOl'S
PR03ECTTlOX
Grall!
'('. Coles
THIS
was an appeal from a
judgment
gi"en by
:\Ir.
Justice
Wrottesley in an action
brought
by the appellant against
P.c. Coles for damages for wrongful arrest, or alternativclv
false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution.
The
action resulted in a
judgment
for the Police Constable
on the ground
that
the constable honestly believed that when
he arrested the appellant the appellant was the man who had
committed an act of larceny some short time before.
The
short
facts of the case were
that
at
10.25
p.m. on the
jrd
December, 1938, the constable was on
duty
in l\Iorden,
Surrey, and he came upon the scene of an accident in which
alorry had collided with atelegraph pole, and the load of
boxes of fruit on it was scattered in the road.
The
constable
learned
that
two
men
had
each gone off with a case of fruit.
Some distance down the road the constable saw two men, one
....
ieged to be
the
appellant, who were detained by the lorry
driver
and
his mate, a
man
named
jeal,
The
two boxes of fruit
were on the ground. Jeal told the constable what had
happened.
The
men
gave no satisfactory explanation of being
in possession of the fruit, and
jcal
said he wished to charge
the two men with stealing.
The
constable told the men
he would take
them
in custodv,
but
thev broke awav and ran in
opposite directions
and
were"not arre;ted. P.c. Coles chased
one man, not the appellant, and this man went into ahouse in
Morden
and slammed the door.
Other
police arrived and the
house was entered and searched,
but
the man was not
there;
obviously he had escaped.
The
officers waited ncar hy for
30 0
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