Dennis Harold Mundt v. United States

Plaintiff Dennis Mundt appeals from a summary judgment entered against him on his suit for false imprisonment under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346 (b) and § 2680(h). Mundt claimed that he had been illegally detained beyond the expiration of his sentence for postal offenses. Because we conclude that Mundt did not establish a prima facie case of false imprisonment under Arizona law, we affirm.

In 1973 Mundt was indicted for assault, forgery and postal offenses. When he refused to furnish handwriting exemplars, Mundt was held in civil contempt and ordered to prison until he complied. He was later convicted of the postal offenses and sentenced to a two-year term.

In 1975 Mundt moved for reduction of sentence, relying upon 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . The district court ruled that the sentence for postal offenses commenced after the period of confinement for civil contempt. On appeal, this court reversed. We ruled that the two-year sentence ran concurrently with the contempt confinement, rather than consecutively to it. Because Mundt had already served two years and seventy-eight days from the date of his sentencing, we ordered his immediate release. Mundt v. United States, No.…