Charles Stores Co. Inc. v. O'Quinn

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

This case grew out of the arrest and prosecution of L. R. O’Quinn, the plaintiff in the District Court, for the larceny of a woman’s blouse worth $3 from the store of Charles Stores Company, Inc., in Greensboro, North Carolina. Three days after the arrest during which the accused was on bail in the sum of $100, the criminal case was tried. At the trial he proved an excellent character and was acquitted. He brought the pending suit for malicious prosecution and was given a verdict by the jury of $15,000 of which $9,000 was awarded for actual damages and $6,000 for punitive…