Felix v. Hall-Brooke Sanitarium

The plaintiff sued the defendant
to recover damages under a complaint alleging a
cause of action for assault and battery and one
for false imprisonment. The answer was in the
nature of a general denial. After the parties had
rested, the court, upon motion, directed a verdict
for the defendant upon the cause of action for
false imprisonment but submitted to the jury the
cause for assault and battery. They returned a
defendant's verdict. The plaintiff has appealed. We first dispose of the assignment of error
attacking the partial direction of the verdict.
Technically, the direction of a verdict is not in
itself a ground of error. The question whether
such action was warranted may be raised only by
attacking a denial of a motion to set aside the
directed verdict. Practice Book 381, 377. Because
of the peculiar circumstances in this case,
however, we will discuss the propriety of the
court's action even though the matter has not been
properly raised.