Malicious prosecution.

Plaintiff was employed by defendant-apartments and, in that capacity, did some maintenance work in individual defendant's unit. Afterward, individual defendant noticed that two watches and a pair of sun glasses were missing, and he reported the loss to the apartment's security director, who notified police. Plaintiff was later arrested and charged with petit larceny, and given an appearance ticket.

Plaintiff then left a threatening message on individual defendant's telephone answering machine, and plaintiff was arrested again, charged with aggravated harassment.

Both charges were dismissed on speedy trial grounds, pursuant to CPL 30.30, and plaintiff commenced this civil action, alleging, among other things, malicious prosecution and abuse of process. Supreme Court granted apartment-defendant's motion to dismiss, but did not dismiss the malicious prosecution cause of action as against individual defendant and the City. The Second Department reversed, in Baker v. City of New York,which was decided on October 30, 2007.

The court noted that, in order to recover for malicious prosecution, a plaintiff must establish all four necessary elements, namely, (1) that a criminal proceeding was commenced; (2) that it was terminated in favor of the accused; (3) that it lacked probable cause; and (4) that the proceeding was brought out of actual malice.

The court then found that individual defendant was entitled to summary judgment on the element of actual malice, saying, that, generally, a civilian who merely furnishes information to law enforcement authorities who are then free to exercise their own independent judgment as to whether an arrest will be made and criminal charges filed will not be held liable for malicious prosecution. Here, plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether individual defendant had played an active role in the prosecution of the charges by advising the police or by encouraging them to make the arrests. Plaintiff did not even allege that individual defendant knowingly gave false information to the police, and he did not allege anything which would raise a question of actual malice.

The court also found individual defendant entitled to summary judgment on the element of probable cause, which here required only information sufficient to support a reasonable belief that plaintiff had committed an offense.

The court also found the City entitled to summary judgment on the same elements, noting that information provided by an identified citizen accusing another individual of a specific crime is legally sufficient to provide the police with probable cause to arrest.