Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/154

 special verdict the jury found that for the purpose of extorting money from the plaintiff the defendants jointly caused him to be arrested and confined in the city jail at Hebron, and that none of the defendants believed him to be guilty of any offense. However, this court held thus:

“A justice of the peace, acting judicially, and within his jurisdiction, is not * * * liable for damages resulting from the arrest and confinement of an individual in jail, though it might appear that he acted maliciously and without the belief that the person had committed a criminal offense.”

Also, that—

“Where two or more defendants are sued jointly for damages arising out of a malicious trespass, * * * and * * * it appears that one of the defendants is not liable, the award of punitory damages cannot stand as to the codefendants”’

This is not a case for punitory damages.

Judgment reversed, and new trial granted.

, J. (specially concurring). I concur in the opinion of Mr. Justice, on the ground that the court erred in excluding evidence of ownership of the tent.

C. B. MASON, Respondent, v. FRED J. UNDERWOOD, J. C. HARPER, and JAMES MORAN, Appellants.

False imprisonment—evidence of ownership of property held admissible on question of culpability.

In an action for false imprisonment, where it appears that the arrest was occasioned partly by acts of the plaintiff in refusing to permit the defendants to remove personal property belonging to one of them, evidence that one of the defendants was the owner of the property is admissible for its bearing upon the degree of culpability of the defendant’s conduct, though not as a justification of it, and its exclusion by the trial court was reversible error.