Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

89 Mass. 26

Stone v. Dickinson

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 15, 1863

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1863-10-15

Tort. The declaration alleged that the defendant sued out a writ of copias against him, and on the 7th of June 1858 unlawfully and without right caused him to be arrested and imprisoned in the common jail, and held and detained him there from said 7th of June until the 10th of February 1860.

Decided 1863-10-15

Bigelow, C. J.

¶1The arrest and commitment to jail of the plaintiff, and his detention there on the several writs sued out against him, which were served simultaneously, constituted only one tortious act, and are the false imprisonment of which the plaintiff complains in his declaration. The arrest cannot be regarded as a distinct and separate wrong for which the plaintiff is entitled to damages. The whole was one transaction, and formed a single substantive cause of action only.

¶2The answer sufficiently alleges that the plaintiff had received full satisfaction for this wrong from one of the joint trespassers, and had released and discharged the cause of action set out in the declaration. The evidence offered at the trial fully sustained this ground of defence. The amount of compensation which the plaintiff had received from one of the tort-feasors was wholly immaterial. It is a conclusive answer to this suit that he had by a release under seal discharged one of the persons who had joined in subjecting him to the false imprisonment alleged in the declaration. A release of one operated as a release of all. Stone v. Dickinson, 5 Allen, 29, and cases cited.

¶3Exceptions overruled.

/89/mass/26 · .json · Public domain