Mitchem v. National Weaving Co.

The following excerpt, taken from the charge, forms the basis of one of defendant’s exceptive assignments of error:

“Now, under this issue, if you shall find that it was done without probable cause, the law implies that it was done with implied malice — a wrongful act done without legal justification.”

This instruction is not supported by the decisions on the subject.

It is true that malice, in the sense the term is used in actions for malicious prosecution, may be inferred from want of probable cause, but it is not presumed from such fact alone. Johnson v. Chambers, 32 N. C., 287.

Speaking to…