Foster v. Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR- to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny county. This was an indictment found against James Heron Foster for having composed and published a libel upon the Hon. Robert C. Grier, President Judge of the District Court of Allegheny county.
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ERROR- to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny county. This was an indictment found against James Heron Foster for having composed and published a libel upon the Hon. Robert C. Grier, President Judge of the District Court of Allegheny county. To this indictment the defendant put in the following special plea:— And the said James Heron Foster, by T. J. Fox Alden, his attorney, comes and defends the wrong and injury when, &c., and says that the said Commonwealth ought not to have and maintain the indictment aforesaid against him the said J. Heron Foster, because he says that the whole of…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
The plea before us is bad in every view of it. It is written on the hornbook of the law, that the public and a party particularly aggrieved, may each have a distinct but concurrent remedy for an act which happens to be both a public and a private wrong. Thus a person beaten may prosecute an action for the battery, while the Commonwealth prosecutes an indictment for the breach of the peace; or a nuisance may be visited by indictment as a public wrong, while it is visited by action as a private injury; and, for reasons equally good, a…
2Cited by18 opinions
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- Barr v. MooreSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1878
- Rocco v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1872
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