Malicious prosecution
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 65 U.S. 544 - Wheeler v. Nesbitt · 1860Most cited · 110 citing opinions
To support an action for a malicious criminal prosecution the plaintiff must prove, in the first place, the fact of prosecution, and that the defendant was himself the prosecutor, or that he instigated its commencement, and that it finally terminated in his acquittal. He must also prove that the charge preferred against him was unfounded, and that it was made without reasonable or probable cause, and that the defendant in making or instigating it was actuated by malice
How the Supreme Court has restated “Malicious prosecution”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Malicious prosecution,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Malicious prosecution”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “Malicious prosecution” — 222 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1851–1869
- ORIGINAL
That action will lie only in cases where a legal prosecution has been carried on without a probable cause. ... The action was originally applied to criminal proceedings; to cases where a party had maliciously, and without probable cause, procured the plaintiff to be indicted or arrested for an offence of which he was not guilty. In cases of that kind, where the facts are admitted, or found by the jury, the court, and not the jury, decide whether there was probable cause or not for the prosecution; and if there was probable cause, an action for malicious prosecution will not lie, although the party who procured the arrest or indictment was actuated by malicious motives.
proof of the bad character of the plaintiff is inadmissible for any purpose in actions for malicious prosecution.