Ostrover v. City of New York

In Ostrover v. City of New York (192 AD2d 115 [1st Dept 1993] plaintiff was arrested after a car in which she was a passenger was stopped, searched, and yielded a weapon (id. at 116). Upon dismissal of all charges, plaintiff sued for false imprisonment and thereafter moved for summary judgment on the issue of liability (id.). On appeal, after noting that defendants conceded that there was no basis for the stop of the plaintiff's vehicle, the court granted plaintiff's motion, rejecting defendants' contention that the discovery of a weapon during the unlawful stop nevertheless gave defendants probable cause to arrest the plaintiff (id. at 118). Specifically, the court held "the fruit of an illegal search cannot give rise, in a juristic sense, to probable cause to arrest, and the conceded illegality of the search and seizure is thus conclusive against the defendant on the issue of privilege. Were this not so, the police could subject a person to an egregiously unconstitutional search, and then use the fruits of that search to establish, in a civil suit for false imprisonment, that the arrest was privileged because it was based upon probable cause. The absurdity of such a principle is so patent as to require no further discussion" (id. at 118.)