Secor v. Babcock

Decided February 15, 1807

New York Supreme Court · decided 1807-02-15

This cause came before the court on a writ of error from the court of common pleas of Orange county. The defendant in error brought his action against the plaintiff in error, in the court below, for a malicious prosecution.

Relies on Murray v. Long

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1807-02-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently June 1947

13 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Per Curiam.

¶1The justice had power, on examination of a charge oísuspicion of felony, or of having stolen goods, to dismiss the plaintiff below, if he was satisfied that there was no ground for the suspicion. The acquittal was lawful, and there was a sufficient ground for a suit for a malicious prosecution. The judgment below must he affirmed.(a)

¶2Judgment affirmed.

¶3A.n action for a malicious prosecution will not lie unless the want of probable cause is substantially proved. Proof of malice alone will not sustain the action. Prom the want of probable cause, malice may be implied, but the want of probable cause cannot be implied from the most express malice. Murray v. Long, 1 Wend. 140.