43 Mich. 241 | Mich. | 1880
Carson brought suit against Edgeworth for prosecuting him maliciously on two unfounded charges; the one for breaking down Edgeworth’s shade trees, April 13,1879, and the other for disturbing a religious meeting
Plaintiff further gave evidence tending to prove that the next day he went to defendant and demanded his watch; that defendant told plaintiff to go to Chesaning and he would meet him there and let him have the watch; that plaintiff did as requested, and while waiting for defendant at Chesaning was arrested on complaint of defendant for disturbing a religious meeting the previous Sunday. That plaintiff was taken before a justice of the peace, the trial continued for a week, and plaintiff by the magistrate (who refused the plaintiff’s father as bail) was committed to Saginaw county jail where he was imprisoned for about a week, and from its uncleanliness was covered with vermin; that he was taken back to the justice’s office, tried and acquitted. Plaintiff also gave evidence tending to show the actual damage sustained by his arrest and imprisonment, and also by persons living near him in Corunna that his general character was always good, and that he was a respectable, church-going man. Also that until the second complaint and arrest defendant had made no pretense that the meeting had been disturbed. He also gave evidence tending to prove that the defendant, previous to taking out the warrant for plaintiff and Tuttle, and on April 14, 1879, went to Justice Dredge at Chesaning and wanted a warrant for two men, meaning the plaintiff and Tuttle, and on being asked by the justice what they had done, replied that they passed his house the day before and one of them broke down two shade trees; that on being advised by the justice that both could not be held, and he had better have but one arrested, defendant replied he would have both arrested; thereupon the justice refused to draw the complaint; that defendant left and returned with complaint, and Dredge issued the warrant and gave it to defendant, and it was never returned; that a few days after defendant came to Jus
The defendant, on his part, gave evidence tending to show that he did not know when he took out the warrant for the destruction of the shade trees, that the act was that of Tuttle alone; that the conduct of both plaintiff and Tuttle was disorderly when they were approaching and passing the place where the religious meeting was being held, and that it attracted the attention of those who were taking part in the meeting; that after the first prosecution was settled up, defendant for the first time learned from his daughters and a niece then at his house, the full extent of the misconduct of plain
When the evidence was concluded the defendant requested the court to instruct the jury that “to maintain this action plaintiff must prove that defendant was actuated by malice. There is no such thing as a legal presumption of malice in this class of cases, and the jury must find the malice, if at all, from the facts proven; and the facts ought to be such as will satisfy any reasonable mind that the prosecution had no ground for the proceeding but his desire to injure the accused. Unless the jury find the defendant acted from motives of malice in his prosecution, and not from a disposition to punish and repress crime, plaintiff cannot recover.” This request was refused, and on this branch of the case the judge charged as follows: “The second count charges the defendant with having made a complaint against the plaintiff falsely, without probable cause, and from malice and improper motives. It is very important to be determined by you whether there was in fact a disturbance, and whether there was any reason on the part of the defendant to believe that there was a disturbance, he being present at the time. The complaint was made on the 17th, four days after the occurrence, and after a settlement had been had between the parties on the first complaint. The plaintiff says from wicked and malicious motives, without probable cause to believe the
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff.
I. In my opinion no error was committed by the court in excluding evidence that the plaintiff and his companion behaved with indecency in passing the defendant’s house. This evidence could have no tendency to show that the plaintiff was guilty of disturbing a religious meeting, and that was the only offense which was in question when the evidence was rejected. Neither, as I think, could it have any legitimate bearing on the question of the defendant’s malice in instituting the second prosecution. It would rather tend to prove malice, by showing animosity, than to disprove it. The defendant finds that his family has been abused, and he thereupon proceeds to institute a criminal prosecution against the parties guilty of the abuse, for an offense alleged to have been committed at another time and place, but which as it turns out was never committed at all. Now if the immediate instigation to the prosecution was the abuse of the family, the prosecution may be referred to
II. I am also of opinion that the charge of the court on the subject of malice was open to no well founded objection. The charge as given required the jury to find the existence of malice as a fact; and while it is perfectly true that the law does not imply malice from an unfounded prosecution (Dietz v. Langfitt 63 Penn. St. 234), yet the jury may infer it as a deduction of fact from the want of probable cause. Burhans v. Sanford 19 Wend. 417; McKown v. Hunter 30 N. Y. 625; Green v. Cochran 43 Iowa 544; Flickinger v. Wagner 46 Md. 580. But the jury in this case had abundant evidence before them from which actual malice might be inferred.
The foregoing are the only points in the case which require attention, and I think the judgment should be affirmed.