County of Los Angeles v. Superior Court

Plaintiffs in the underlying action seek damages for injuries resulting from their false arrest, false imprisonment and violation of their federal civil rights by defendants, the County of Los Angeles and individual county employees. In a pretrial order, the trial court ruled that under their state law causes of action plaintiffs can only recover damages for the period between their arrest and the time the district attorney filed a criminal complaint against them. As to plaintiffs’ claim under the federal Civil Rights Act, 42 United States Code section 1983 (section 1983), the trial court ruled plaintiffs could recover damages only to the extent those damages were attributable to the defendants’ prefiling conduct. Both sides have challenged the trial court’s ruling through petitions for writs of mandate. The plaintiffs contend the ruling is too restrictive; the defendants contend the ruling is too broad.

For the reasons explained below, we conclude with respect to plaintiffs’ state law claims plaintiffs are entitled to all damages which are attributable to injuries arising from the false arrest and false imprisonment which preceded their arraignment. With respect to…