Probable Cause
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
In the duties collection act of 1799, must mean reasonable ground of presumption that the charge is, or may be, well founded.
Wood v. United States, 16 Pet. 342, 366.
It means less than "evidence which would justify condemnation:" it imports a seizure made under circumstances which warrant suspicion. Locke v. United States, 7 Cranch, 339. cumstances as would excite the belief in a reasonable mind, acting on facts within the knowledge of the prosecutor, that the person charged was guilty of the crime for which he was prosecuted.
Wheeler v. Nesbitt, 24 How. 544.
It is a reasonable ground for suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong in themselves to warrant a cautious man in believing that the accused is guilty of an offence with which he is charged.
Munns v. Dupont, 3 Wash. 31; Palmer v. Richardson, 70 ///. 544; Davie v. Wisher, 72