Brock v. Stimson
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tobt for assault and battery, and false imprisonment, at Cambridge. Writ dated June 22, 1870. The defendant answered “ that he was the chief of police within and for the said city of Cambridge; that the plaintiff was in a certain horse car, within said city, drunk and intoxicated and disorderly, and disturbing the peace by his unlawful conduct; that the defendant, in the exercise of his duty as a police officer, directed the arrest of the plaintiff, and his removal from said…
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Tobt for assault and battery, and false imprisonment, at Cambridge. Writ dated June 22, 1870. The defendant answered “ that he was the chief of police within and for the said city of Cambridge; that the plaintiff was in a certain horse car, within said city, drunk and intoxicated and disorderly, and disturbing the peace by his unlawful conduct; that the defendant, in the exercise of his duty as a police officer, directed the arrest of the plaintiff, and his removal from said car, and assisted thereat, and detained the plaintiff in custody at a station-house in said city for a short space of…
1Opinion of the CourtGray, J.
Every man has the right to the enjoyment of his liberty and the use of his property, except so far as restrained by law; and whoever unlawfully interferes with the enjoyment of the one, or the use of the other, is a trespasser. A man who seizes the property or arrests the person of another by legal process, or other equivalent authority conferred upon him by law, can only justify himself by a strict compliance with the requirements of such process or authority. If he fails to execute or return the process as thereby required, he may not perhaps in the strictest sense be said to become a…
2Cited by32 opinions
- Virginia v. MooreSupreme Court of the United States · 2008
- Commonwealth v. DiStasioMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1936
- Harness v. SteeleIndiana Supreme Court · 1902
- Piedmont Hotel Co. v. HendersonCourt of Appeals of Georgia · 1911
- Keefe v. HartMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1913
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