Stewart v. Sonneborn
Supreme Court of the United States
Error to the Circuit Court of tbe United States for the Middle District of Alabama. This was an action brought by Meyer Sonneborn, the plaintiff below, against A. T. Stewart & Co., to recover damages for an alleged wrongful and malicious institution of proceedings in bankruptcy against him.
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Error to the Circuit Court of tbe United States for the Middle District of Alabama. This was an action brought by Meyer Sonneborn, the plaintiff below, against A. T. Stewart & Co., to recover damages for an alleged wrongful and malicious institution of proceedings in bankruptcy against him. The record shows that in the years 1865 and 1866 Sonneborn was a member of the firm of E. Leipzeiger & Co., in New York, and that while he was thus a member the firm bought goods on credit from A. T. Stewart & Co. Some time in 1866 he withdrew from the firm; but no notice of his withdrawal was published,…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Strong
The errors now assigned are exclusively to the charge given by the court to the jury. The instruction given was (inter alia) as follows: “ But if they (the defendants) had no legal claim or demand against the complainant (Sonneborn), then, whether they had probable cause or not, they had no right to institute the proceedings (in bankruptcy). They cannot go back and allege that, though they had no legal claim against him, they thought they had; in other words, that they had probable cause to believe that they had such a demand. Unless they had a debt, they cannot allege probable cause for…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Besson v. . SouthardNew York Court of Appeals · 1851
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- Cooper v. UtterbachCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1873
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