Fisher v. Deans
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for causing the plaintiff to be unlawfully imprisoned. At the trial in the superior court, before Rockwell, J., it appeared that the defendant, as a trial justice for the county of Norfolk, issued a warrant against the plaintiff, on the complaint of David Fisher, charging the plaintiff with maliciously taking and carrying away a pine log from the land of the complainant; that on January 23,1868, the plaintiff was tried on the complaint before the defendant, convicted,…
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Tort for causing the plaintiff to be unlawfully imprisoned. At the trial in the superior court, before Rockwell, J., it appeared that the defendant, as a trial justice for the county of Norfolk, issued a warrant against the plaintiff, on the complaint of David Fisher, charging the plaintiff with maliciously taking and carrying away a pine log from the land of the complainant; that on January 23,1868, the plaintiff was tried on the complaint before the defendant, convicted, and sentenced to pay a fine and costa and stand committed until sentence should be performed; that the fine and costs…
1Opinion of the CourtAmes, J.
Ho authority need be cited for the position that a justice of the peace, while acting in his judicial capacity, and within the limits of his lawful jurisdiction, is exempt from all responsibility in a private action, as a wrongdoer, for any official order or judgment, even though it may be erroneous and malicious. But this exemption does not extend to any illegal act which he may have done in the exercise of his ministerial powers and duties. When in the progress of a civil action, or a criminal proceeding, a final judgment has been rendered, his judicial duty is at an end, and nothing…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Briggs v. WardwellMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
3Cited by9 opinions
- Yaselli v. GoffCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit · 1926
- City of Boston v. SantosuossoMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1941
- Clark v. HugoSupreme Court of Virginia · 1921
- Tuttle v. LangSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1905
- Andersen v. BishopMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1939
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