Olmstead v. Partridge
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Action of tort for a malicious prosecution by making a complaint to a justice of the peace, charging the plaintiff with larceny of one hundred sticks of oak wood, upon which the plaintiff was arrested and tried before a trial justice and discharged.
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Action of tort for a malicious prosecution by making a complaint to a justice of the peace, charging the plaintiff with larceny of one hundred sticks of oak wood, upon which the plaintiff was arrested and tried before a trial justice and discharged. At the trial in the court of common pleas at April term, 1859, Aiken, J. admitted in evidence, against the defendant’s objection, a certified copy of the record of the proceedings in that prosecution, without calling either the magistrate who received the complaint and issued the warrant, or the one who tried the case. The defendant called the…
1Opinion of the CourtBigelow, C. J.
1. The copy of the record of proceedings before the magistrate was not only competent, but it was the only proper and legitimate method of proving the essential fact of the institution of the prosecution. Stone v. Crocker, 24 Pick. 87. Sayles v. Briggs, 4 Met. 421.
2. In actions for malicious prosecution, it has been held to be competent for the defendant to prove, in order to establish the fact of probable cause, that in prosecuting the plaintiff on a criminal charge he acted in accordance with the advice of counsel on a full and correct statement of all the material facts bearing on the…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Norris v. DoniphanCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1863
3Cited by4 opinions
- Brobst v. RuffSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1882
- Mauldin v. BallTennessee Supreme Court · 1900
- Stratton v. LockhartIndiana Court of Appeals · 1891
- Perrenoud v. HelmNebraska Supreme Court · 1902