Bird v Jones - 1845

Legal Case Summary

Bird v. Jones [1845] 7 QB 742

False imprisonment – obstruction of a public road

Facts

Bird, B, wished to cross a section of a public road which was closed off due to a boat race. Two policemen, D, prevented B from passing in the direction he wished to go, but was allowed to go in the only other direction in which he could pass. B refused to go in that direction and stood in the same place. B raised an action against D for false imprisonment.

Issues

B claimed that the exclusion from using a section of the public road which prohibited him from moving in one direction, despite all other directions remaining unobstructed, constituted false imprisonment.

Decision/Outcome

Partial obstruction and disturbance does not constitute imprisonment. Coleridge J. stated at paragraph 744 of his judgement that:

“a prison may have its boundary large or narrow, visible and tangible, or, though real, still in the conception only; it may itself be moveable or fixed: but a boundary it must have; and that boundary the party imprisoned must be prevented from passing; he must be prevented from leaving that place, within the ambit of which the party imprisoning would confine him, except by prison-breach.”

A prison must therefore have a boundary. As there was still one direction which B could take, he could not be said to have been imprisoned as he was not confined and prevented from passing or leaving that place. B was at liberty to move off in another direction and no restraint or actual force was used against him.