Malicious abuse of process

The use of the process of a court to accomplish some unlawful end, or to compel one against whom it is issued to do some collateral thing which he could not legally be compelled to do. See 96 Wis. 158, 65 Am. St. Rep. 40, 37 L. R. A. 580,, 71 N. W. 119.

The malicious misuse or misapplication of process to accomplish a purpose not warranted or commanded by the writ; the malicious perversion of a regularly issued process, whereby a result not lawfully or properly obtained on a writ is secured ; not including cases where the process was procured maliciousiy but not abused or misused after its issuance. Bartlett v. Christhilf, 69 Md. 219, 14 Atl. 521; Mayer v. Walter, 64 Pa. 283; Humphreys v. Sutcliffe, 192 Pa. 336, 48 Atl. 954, 73 Am. St. Rep. 819; Kline v. Hibbard, 80 Hun, 50, 29 N. Y. Supp. 807.

Defined under Malicious in Black's Law Dictionary.