Lawanda Brown  v. Defendant Store and The City of Tallahassee

Final Summary Judgment

Attorney Alec Masson, Esq., prevailed in a Motion for Summary Judgment in the False Arrest matter styled Lawanda Brown v. Defendant Store and The City of Tallahassee. Plaintiff alleged false arrest and negligent reporting of a crime against the Defendant Store arising out of a photo-lineup misidentification. We argued that Defendant Store should be granted summary judgment under the Pokorny privilege (as enunciated in Pokorny v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n of Largo, 382 So. 2d 678, 682 (Fla. 1980)) where neither employee requested that law enforcement arrest the suspect. With respect to the negligent reporting of a crime count (recently confirmed to exist as a valid cause of action in Valladares v. Bank of Am. Corp., 197 So. 3d 1 (Fla. 2016).), we argued that despite a misidentification, there was no additional conduct on the part of Defendant Store or its agents rising to the level of punitive conduct as required by Valladares. Final Summary Judgment was granted in Defendant Store’s favor. Read more.