But this view cannot be accepted without hesitation. It is
admitted that, on the one side, the existence of probable cause,
believed in, is a justification notwithstanding malice; /2/ that,
on the other, "it is not enough to show [142] that the case
appeared sufficient to this particular party, but it must be
sufficient to induce a sober, sensible and discreet person to act
upon it, or it must fail as a justification for the proceeding
upon general grounds." /1/ On the one side, malice alone will not
make a man liable for instituting a groundless prosecution; on
the other, his justification will depend, not on his opinion of
the facts, but on that of the court. When his actual moral
condition is disregarded to this extent, it is a little hard to
believe that the existence of an improper motive should be
material. Yet that is what malice must mean in this case, if it
means anything. /2/ For the evil effects of a successful
indictment are of course intended by one who procures all other
to be indicted. I cannot but think that a jury would be told that
knowledge or belief that the charge was false at the time of
making it was conclusive evidence of malice. And if so, on
grounds which need not be repeated, malice is not the important
thing, but the facts known to the defendant.
Nevertheless, as it is obviously treading on delicate ground to
make it actionable to set the regular processes of the law in
motion, it is, of course, entirely possible to say that the
action shall be limited to those cases where the charge was
preferred from improper motives, at least if the defendant
thought that there was probable cause. Such a limitation would
stand almost alone in the law of civil liability. But the nature
of the wrong is peculiar, and, moreover, it is quite consistent
with the theory of liability here advanced that it should be
confined in any given instance to actual wrong-doing in a moral
sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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