Dowdell

This is an appeal by defendants The Owl Drug Company and William E. Smith, an employee of said company, from a judgment upon a verdict awarding to plaintiffs the sum of $25,000 as damages for false imprisonment of plaintiff Smiles Elsie Dowdell.

Mrs. Dowdell was employed by The Owl Drug Company as saleswoman, and defendant Smith was employed by said company as an investigator. On March 19, 1928, defendant Fore, a sergeant in the Los Angeles police department, brought one Palmer to the office of Captain of Detectives Cato at Sawtelle on a charge of “suspicion of burglary”, preferred by Mrs. Dowdell. During the course of this investigation Palmer volunteered to Captain Cato information that Mrs. Dowdell had stolen merchandise from The Owl Drug Company. Captain Cato thereupon telephoned to defendant Smith and instructed Officer Fore to get Smith and go with him to Mrs. Dowdell’s house, and in the event that they found there property they could identify as coming from The Owl Drug Company, to make the arrest. Thereupon Smith went to the police station and directed defendants Officers Fore and Brinnegar to the residence of Mrs. Dowdell. The officers had no search-warrant, nor any…