Smith v. Jones
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
On exceptions and motion to set aside the verdict. An action to recover damages for causing the plaintiff’s arrest in the Province of New Brunswick, and his imprisonment for two days, when on application to the court there he was discharged because he was at the time privileged from arrest, as he was returning home from Woodstock, New Brunswick, where he had been attending .court as a witness. The plea was the general issue.
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On exceptions and motion to set aside the verdict. An action to recover damages for causing the plaintiff’s arrest in the Province of New Brunswick, and his imprisonment for two days, when on application to the court there he was discharged because he was at the time privileged from arrest, as he was returning home from Woodstock, New Brunswick, where he had been attending .court as a witness. The plea was the general issue. The verdict was for the plaintiff in the sum of eight hundred dollars. Other material facts stated in the opinion. The plaintiff was a witness in a foreign jurisdiction,…
1Opinion of the CourtPeters, C. J.
The plaintiff sues the defendant for causing his arrest upon a civil process in defendant’s name, in the Province of New Brunswick, while the plaintiff was returning from a court in the Province, at which he had been in attendance as a *140witness, to his home in Maine. The defendant knew that the plaintiff was a returning witness at the time. Our view of the law is that the action cannot be maintained.
The question is satisfactorily solved by an examination of the nature and extent of the privilege from arrest, -which the law accords to witnesses.
It is not a natural right. It is contrary to…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Person v. . GrierNew York Court of Appeals · 1876
- Thompson's CaseMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
- Snelling & Baxter v. WatrousNew York Court of Chancery · 1830
3Cited by11 opinions
- Robinette v. PriceSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1943
- Reed v. StateSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1912
- State ex rel. Isenring v. PolacheckWisconsin Supreme Court · 1898
- In Re EmmettCalifornia Court of Appeal · 1932
- Bennett v. AhrensCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 1932
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