Florida Litigation Guide

False Imprisonment -

[1] Elements and Case Citations

(1) Defendant intended to confine the plaintiff;

(2) Defendant performed an act resulting in plaintiff’s confinement; and

(3) Plaintiff was conscious of the confinement or resulting harm.

False imprisonment is identical to false arrest. Card v. Miami Dade County Florida, 147 F. Supp. 2d 1334, 1347 (S.D. Fla. 2001). Courts use the terms ``confine'' and ``restrain'' interchangeably in defining the elements of false imprisonment. See Maybin v. Thompson, 606 So. 2d 1240, 1242 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992).

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Florida State Courts

Florida Supreme Court: Johnson v. Weiner, 155 Fla. 169, 19 So. 2d 699, 700 (1944)

First District: Spears v. Albertson's, Inc., 848 So.2d 1176 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003)

Second District: Maybin v. Thompson, 606 So. 2d 1240, 1241 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992)

Third District: Tursi v. Metropolitan Dade County, 579 So. 2d 150, 152 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991)

Fourth District: Montejo v. Martin Mem'l Med. Ctr., Inc., 935 So. 2d 1266, 1268-69 (Fla. 4^th DCA 2006)

Fifth District: Everett v. Florida Inst. of Tech., 503 So. 2d 1382, 1383 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987)

Florida Federal Courts

Eleventh Circuit: Cannon v. Macon County, 1 F.3d 1558, 1562 (11th Cir. 1993), modified on other grounds, 15 F.3d 1022 (11th Cir. 1994)

Southern District: Penn v. City of Miami, 1999 WL 1050059, *7 (S.D.Fla. 1999)

Middle District: Geidel v. City of Bradenton Beach, 56 F. Supp. 2d 1359, 1367 (M.D.Fla.1999)

Northern District: McCurry v. Moore, 242 F. Supp. 2d 1167, 1179, n.4 (N.D. Fla. 2002)

Federal Statutes

42 U.S.C. § 1983

References

Restatement (Second) of Torts § 35 (1965)

[2] Defenses to Claim for False Imprisonment

(1) Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.110(d) (pleading affirmative defenses), and other standard defenses. See § 56.

(2) Statute of Limitations: § 95.11(3)(o), Fla. Stat. (four years).

(3) Imprisonment pursuant to valid legal process, such as an arrest warrant, cannot support a claim for false imprisonment. Johnson v. Weiner, 155 Fla. 169, 19 So. 2d 699, 700 (1944).

(4) Plaintiff may not bring claim for false imprisonment where a police officer had probable cause to confine the plaintiff. See Mas v. Metropolitan Dade County, 775 So. 2d 1010, 1011 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001); Mailly v. Jenne, 867 So.2d 1250, 1251 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004).

(5) Private citizens are not liable for false imprisonment resulting from mistakenly reporting an incident to the police that results in the alleged actor’s imprisonment where the citizen made such report in good faith. Pokorny v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Largo, 382 So. 2d 678, 682 (Fla. 1980).