The Law of Torts Or Private Wrongs, Volume 1

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Little, Brown, 1859 - Torts - 719 pages

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Page 342 - 'the proper meaning of a privileged communication is only this : that the occasion on which the communication was made rebuts the inference prima facie arising from a statement prejudicial to the character of the plaintiff, and puts it upon him to prove that there was malice in fact — that the defendant was actuated by motives of personal spite or ill-will, independent of the occasion on which the communication was made,' " and Lord Lindley in Stuart v.
Page 71 - All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used, and approved in the Province, Colony, or State of Massachusetts Bay, and usually practised on in the courts of law, shall still remain and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the legislature; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this constitution.
Page 88 - ... every injury imports a damage, though it does not cost the party one farthing, and it is impossible to prove the contrary ; for a damage is not merely pecuniary, but an injury imports a damage, when a man is thereby hindered of his right.
Page 366 - Every subject has a right to comment on those acts of public men which concern him as a subject of the realm, if he do not make his commentary a cloak for malice and slander. But any imputation of wicked or corrupt motives is unquestionably libellous ; and such appears to be the nature of the publications here.
Page 361 - A communication made bona fide upon any subject-matter in which the party communicating has an interest, or in reference to which he has a duty, is privileged, if made to a person having a corresponding interest or duty, although it contain criminating matter which, without this privilege, would be slanderous and actionable...
Page 50 - It lies only for money which, ex aequo et bono, the defendant ought to refund: it does not lie for money paid by the plaintiff, which is claimed of him as payable in point of honor and honesty, although it could not have been recovered from him by any course of law, — as in payment of a debt barred by the statute of limitations, or contracted during his infancy, or to the extent of principal and legal interest upon...
Page 192 - The least touching of another's person wilfully, or in anger, is a battery; for the law cannot draw the line between different degrees of violence, and therefore totally prohibits the first and lowest stage of it : every man's person being sacred, and no other having a right to meddle with it} in any the slightest manner.
Page 231 - The general distinction is this : where the immediate act of imprisonment proceeds from the defendant, the action must be trespass and trespass only; but where the act of imprisonment by one person is in consequence of information from another, there an action upon the case is the proper remedy, because the injury is sustained in consequence of the wrongful act of that other.
Page 473 - Probable cause is such a state of facts in the mind of the prosecutor, as would lead a man of ordinary caution and prudence to believe or entertain an honest and strong suspicion, that the person arrested is guilty.
Page 238 - Injuries affecting a man's health are where, by any unwholesome practices of another, a man sustains any apparent damage in his vigour or constitution. As by selling him bad provisions, or wine ;(«?) by the exercise of a noisome trade, which infects the air in his neighbourhood ;(x) or by the neglect or unskilful management of his physician, surgeon, or apothecary.

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