Dussault

This is an action for false arrest and false imprisonment brought by two minor plaintiffs by their father as guardian ad litem against two police officers of the City of San Mateo. After a trial by jury a verdict was returned in favor of both defendants. The plaintiffs appeal alone from the judgment entered on the verdict in favor of Condon.

The errors assigned by the appellant’s opening brief are three in number, but in the closing brief these are reduced to one, in effect, as the appellants say: “This case boils down to the question whether the offense in this case was committed ‘in the presence’ of the police officer. If it was not, he had no right to make the arrest.”

The facts necessary to be considered in reaching a conclusion on the errors assigned are as follows:

On August 4, 1956, the two minors (aged 15 and 14) with their father were in attendance at the Bay Meadows Race Track where the father had entered two horses for racing. He left the boys at the docker’s booth on the barn side of the track while he himself went to the grandstand area. The inside of the booth was about 6 by 15 feet. It stood raised above the ground about 5 feet to the bottom of its floor. There…