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81 Wis. 578

King v. Johnston

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided March 22, 1892

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1892-03-22

The complaint alleges, in effect, that the plaintiff was, November 6, 1890, the lessee of certain rooms in Smith’s block in New London, wherein the New London Times was published, and entitled to the possession thereof; that on that day, at New London, the defendants wrongfully, maliciously, and without reasonable or probable cause procured a warrant charging the plaintiff with having committed the crime of burglary by breaking and entering said office on the day named; that…

Relies on Antcliff v. June · Woodworth v. Mills · Murphy v. Martin

Cited in Black's (1910)’s definition of “Abuse”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1892-03-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently January 1942

1 district · 8 state decisions

30189219001910192019301940decided

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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Oassoday, J.

¶1The complaint does not state a cause of action for false imprisonment, since it fails to allege facts showing that the arrest was extra-judicial or without legal process. Murphy v. Martin, 58 Wis. 276; Gelzenleuchter v. Niemeyer, 64 Wis. 321. The complaint does not state a cause of action for malicious prosecution, since it fails to allege facts showing that the criminal action had been determined. Woodworth v. Mills, 61 Wis. 44; West v. Hayes, 104 Ind. 251; Lowe v. Wartman, 47 N. J. Law, 413; Comm. v. McClusky, 151 Mass. 488; 14 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 28, 42, and cases there cited. There are cases holding that an action for the malicious abuse of legal process may be maintained even where the action in which such process issued has not been determined. Mayer v. Walter, 64 Pa. St. 283; Antcliff v. June, 81 Mich. 477; Emery v. Ginnan, 24 Ill. App. 65. In the Pennsylvania case cited Mr. Justice ShaRswood said: “ There is a distinction between a malicious use and a malicious abuse of legal process. An abuse is where the party employs it for some unlawful object, not the purpose which it is intended by the law to effect; in other words, a perversion of it.” Assuming that the pleader here intended to allege such abuse of legal process, which is very doubtful, still we are constrained to hold that the complaint, the substance of which is contained in the foregoing statement, fails to state such a cause of action.

¶2By the Court.— The order of the circuit court is affirmed.

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