Laible

Plaintiff, once arrested as a suspect in the robbery of a Brinks truck, challenges a ruling on partial summary judgment establishing the City and County of San Francisco’s (City and County) immunity defense to a cause of action for false arrest and imprisonment. The City and County’s defense depends upon Civil Code section 43.5(a), which states: “There shall be no liability on the part of and no cause of action shall arise against any peace officer who makes an arrest pursuant to a warrant of arrest regular upon its face if such peace officer in making the arrest acts without malice and in reasonable belief that the person arrested is the one referred to in the warrant.” Implicitly, the trial court ruled that petitioner had not raised a factual question concerning the peace officer’s malice in making the arrest pursuant to an arrest warrant. We disagree with the court’s evaluation of the declarations, and issue a peremptory writ of mandate.

Review of the trial court’s determination on a motion for partial summary judgment (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c) involves pure matters of law, and proceeds in one or more of three consecutive steps: (1) Analyze the pleadings; (2) examine…