Leonard

Defendant City of Los Angeles appeals from a judgment entered against it on plaintiff’s suit for false imprisonment. Following a nonjury trial the court found that defendant city had, without probable cause, wrongfully arrested and imprisoned plaintiff.

The evidence and the superior court’s findings disclose that the arrest occurred in Los Angeles on August 16, 1965. Plaintiff was charged by the officers with violating Penal Code section 485, a misdemeanor involving lost property valued at less than $200. The superior court which heard plaintiff’s civil action found that the officers did not have probable cause to break and enter plaintiff’s residence, or to search the residence or arrest plaintiff; that they failed to comply with Penal Code section 844 and that they wrongfully imprisoned plaintiff.

We are here concerned with the effect of a stipulation that probable cause existed, made in the criminal case between the city attorney and Leonard’s defense counsel prior to the time the criminal complaint was dismissed in the municipal court. The superior court found that, when plaintiff appeared in the municipal criminal court on October 15, 1965, “after consulting his…