Lord Denman, C. J. (in summing up). You will say, whether, on the evidence, you think that the policeman committed an assault on the plaintiff, or was merely passive. If the policeman was entirely passive, like a door or a wall put to prevent the plaintiff from entering the room, and simply obstructing the entrance of the plaintiff, no assault has been committed on the plaintiff, and your verdict will be for the defendant. The question is, Did the policeman take any active measures to prevent the plaintiff from entering the room, or did he stand in the doorway passive, and not move at all?
Verdict for the plaintiff. Damages, 40s.
COWARD v. BADDELEY
In the Exchequer, April 19, 1859.
Reported in 4 Hurlstone & Norman, 478.
Declaration: That the defendant assaulted and beat the plaintiff, gave him in custody to a policeman, and caused him to be imprisoned in a police-station for twenty-four hours, and afterwards to be taken in custody along public streets before metropolitan police magistrates.
Pleas: First, Not guilty; third, That the plaintiff, within the Metropolitan Police District, assaulted the defendant, and therefore the defendant gave the plaintiff into custody to a police officer, who had view of the assault, in order that he might be taken before magistrates and dealt with according to law, &c.
Whereupon issue was joined.
At the trial before Bramwell, B., at the London sittings in last Hilary term, the plaintiff proved that, on the night of the 31st of October, he was passing through High Street, Islington, and stopped to look at a house which was on fire. The defendant was directing a stream of water from the hose of an engine on the fire. The plaintiff said, “Don’t you see you are spreading the flames? Why don’t you pump on the next house?” He went away, and then came back and repeated these words several times, but did not touch the defendant. The defendant charged the plaintiff with assaulting him, and gave him into the custody of a policeman who was standing near.
The defendant swore that, on being interrupted by the plaintiff, he told him to get out of the way and mind his own business; that the plaintiff came up to him again, seized him by the shoulder, violently turned him round, exposed him to danger, and turned the water off the fire.
The learned judge told the jury that the question was whether an assault and battery had been committed; and he asked them, first, whether the plaintiff laid hands on the defendant; and, secondly, whether he did so hostilely. The jury found that the plaintiff did lay hands on the defendant, intending to attract his attention. Whereupon the learned judge ordered the verdict to be entered for the plaintiff, reserving leave to the defendant to move to enter a verdict for him if the court should be of opinion that he had wrongly directed the jury in telling them that, to find the issue on the third plea for the defendant, they must find that the plaintiff laid his hands upon him with a hostile intention.
Shee, Serjt., in the same term, having obtained a rule nisi accordingly.