Dickens v. Debolt

602 P.2d 246 (1979)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was fishing for sturgeon in the Columbia River below the John Day Dam. P met two other sturgeon fishermen, Rans Golden and Gregory Elliot. P landed a 'royal fish' -- 43 inches in length and weighing between 40 and 45 pounds. To preserve it P put the end of a rope through the gills of the sturgeon and tied the other end of the rope to a cable under the platform, leaving the fish alive and in the river. P asked Golden and Elliot to 'keep an eye' on his sturgeon. P and his party then went to a motel where they spent the night. The next morning P found the rope cut and the fish gone. He was then told by Golden that a state police officer had taken the fish and had said that if plaintiff wanted it he 'would have to call.' P called the police and asked for his fish and was told that he would not get it back. P never saw his sturgeon again. The 'going price' for the 40 to 45 pounds of meat, which he had planned to eat, was $5.65 per pound and that the rope was a ski rope worth from $10 to $15. P was never 'interviewed' by the state police, much less arrested or charged with catching the sturgeon illegally. D was the state police officer who took the sturgeon. D testified that he arrested saw Golden and Elliot after he saw them illegally catch a sturgeon, tie a rope through its gills and tie the rope to a cable under the platform. D arrested Golden and Elliot, for angling after hours. He then looked over the platform and saw one sturgeon tied to a cable. He took the fish 'as evidence' in the case but admitted that Golden and Elliot had told him that the sturgeon 'belonged to some people that were in a local motel in Rufus. D did not check it out. Golden and Elliot had not told him that there were two sturgeon tied to cables under the platform, including the one that he had seen them catch and which he believed to be the fish that he took 'as evidence.' The state police 'didn't have any deep freeze facilities so D skinned and fileted the sturgeon, put a police evidence tag in the package and put the sturgeon in the freezer at his home. D said the meat weighed 8 pounds. P sued D for conversion. D testified that he had not eaten any of the sturgeon. A professional fish buyer witness testified that a 40-pound sturgeon, after dressing by removal of head and entrails, would 'lose at least 15 percent,' depending on the size of the head meaning that 34 pounds of the 40-pound fish should have been remaining. The judge instructed the jury that it was not official police business that D eat part of the evidence. P got the verdict for $250 in general damages and $750 in punitive damages. D moved for a directed verdict based on statutory immunity as a police officer. It was denied. On appeal, the court held that D had absolute immunity in that bad faith cannot be permitted to defeat immunity. P appealed.