81 Md. 518 | Md. | 1895
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This was an action for malicious prosecution brought by the appellee against the appellant. At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s testimony, the defendant asked the Court to instruct the jury that there was no evidence in the case legally sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover. The rulings of the Court in rejecting that prayer and in excluding some evidence, to be hereinafter referred to, are before this Court for review.
It is contended on the part of the appellee that the prayer
It is conceded that the plaintiff was prosecuted by the defendant for an alleged criminal offence — an assault with intent to kill. He was imprisoned in the county jail for about two weeks, when he was admitted to bail. It was shown by the evidence of the deputy clerk that no presentment had been found against the plaintiff, and by the foreman of the grand jury that the case was dismissed. There can, therefore, be no question that the prosecution had been finally terminated in favor of the appellee. Hyde v. Greuch, 62 Md. 582. A careful examination of the record satisfies us that there was abundant evidence from which the jury could find that the arrest was without probable cause. The testimony of the plaintiff not only tends to show that he did not assault the defendant, but that on the contrary he was assaulted by him. It is true that he admits that he threw a brick at the door of the kitchen connected with the house which he wanted to enter to see his father. But the circumstances, as detailed by him, which for the purposes of this prayer we must accept as true, were such that the jury may have well reached the conclusion that the charge made by the defendant was wholly unjustifiable. He was not acting on what others had told him, but on what he could see for himself. The plaintiff testified that “ I told him (defendant) that I had come to see my father, and started to enter the kitchen door, and as I placed my foot on the step he shoved me back and I caught on my hands; as I fell back my hand
After the foreman of the grand jury had testified that the case against the plaintiff was dismissed, the defendant asked on cross-examination why it was dismissed. The Court refused to permit the question to be answered. The record shows that the witness had been permitted to testify that the case had been dismissed by the grand jury for the purpose of showing that the prosecution was ended. The evidence being admitted for that purpose, it is difficult to see the relevancy of the inquiry why it was dismissed — in other words, why it was ended. But different reasons might have influenced the grand jurors, and it was not competent for the foreman to undertake to give them. As was said in Elbin v. Wilson, 33 Md. 144: “ All the authorities concur in saying that the juror will not be permitted to state how any member voted, or the opinion expressed by his fellow or himself, or the individual action of any juror in regard to the subject-matter before them.” This is not such a case as Knott v. Sargeant, 125 Mass. 95, relied on by the appellant. There the grand jury simply did not find a bill at the first term of Court — they did not dismiss the case. The recognizance which the accused had entered into required her to appear at the October
Much of what we have already said about the question involved in the first bill of exceptions applies to the second, third and fourth. In all of them the effort was made to have the foreman explain the action of the grand jury. The object seemed to be to show that the prosecution was abandoned at the instance of the appellant. We do not think that relevant. We must assume that the grand jury would not have dismissed the case, even at the instance of the appellant, unless they thought it proper to do so. There was no proffer to show that the appellant took such action at the request or with the knowledge of the appellee. Nor do we think that any effort on the part of the appellant to have the case dismissed could be offered in evidence, either in bar of the suit or in mitigation of damages. The appellee had already suffered the injury he complained of, as he had been arrested in the month of May before the October term of Court, when the case was dismissed, and hal remained in jail for two weeks. It may be that the appellant believed he had done his brother a wrong, or he may have been anxious to relieve himself from farther liability, or he may have acted from a desire to save his father from annoyance and his brother from further trouble, but whatever his motive was his action then would not compensate the appellee for the injury already done him. Of course the dismissal of the case did not preclude the appellant from showing that the appellee was in fact guilty,
As we find no error in the rulings of the Court below, the judgment must be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed with costs to the appellee.