25 Pa. Super. 102 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1902
Opinion by
The plaintiff recovered a verdict in this action for damages for an alleged malicious prosecution, and the appeal is brought by P. L. Kuntz, the record having ‘been amended by discontinuing as to the other defendant. P. L. Kuntz was the salaried agent of his codefendant society, and, as such, made an information against the plaintiff, charging him with cruelty to animals, but, after several continuances before the magistrate, the case was abandoned and the plaintiff discharged. On the trial of this action the defendant submitted as a point: “ 5. Defendant having shown probable cause for the making of the information, plaintiff cannot recover,” which was answered by the court: “ This is a question for the jury. If
The court gave no instruction as to whether there was probable cause or not, but left that question, as well as the question of the proof of the fact, to the jury. Without the assistance which the law imposes upon the court the whole case was thus thrown upon the jury.
Prosecutions are presumed to have been properly instituted and hence in order to sustain an action for malicious prosecution, malice and want of probable cause must both concur and be proved by the plaintiff. What facts and circumstances amount to probable cause is a question of law. Whether they exist in any particular case is a question of fact. Where the facts are in controversy, the question must be submitted to the jury, in which event it is the duty of the court to instruct them
It was undisputed in this case that Kuntz, acting as agent for the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, was notified by an alderman of the city of Allegheny that the plaintiff had been guilty of cruelty to animals, and was given the source of information with the request that he investigate it. The investigation was made promptly, and, acting on the evidence thus secured, Kountz made an information against this plaintiff, to whom he was a stranger and against whom it could not be urged that he had aiiy personal ill will at the time. There was nothing in the case to indicate that the proceeding was improperly instituted or recklessly proceeded in, and the court below should have held as a matter of law that there was probable cause for the action of Kuntz instead of submitting that question to the jury.
Probable cause has been variously defined as such a suspicion as would induce a reasonable man to commence a prosecution, or, as in our own cases, a deceptive appearance of guilt arising from facts and circumstances misapprehended or misunderstood so far as to produce belief. The substance of all these definitions is a reasonable ground for belief of guilt. It can make no difference what induces the belief if it be reasonably sufficient.
The inquiry as to the probable cause goes back to the commencement of the prosecution and it relates to the facts then known and as they then appeared. It is not confined to the truth of matters that lead to the prosecution, but extends to their appearance as indicating the guilt or innocence of the accused. If probable cause is shown, it matters not whether the motive of the prosecutor be praiseworthy or malicious; and the undisputed evidence in this case made it the duty of the court below to affirm the defendant’s seventh point and to direct a verdict for the defendant.
The judgment is reversed.