Parsons v. Harper

16 Gratt. 64
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJuly 15, 1860
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 16 Gratt. 64 (Parsons v. Harper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parsons v. Harper, 16 Gratt. 64 (Va. 1860).

Opinion

BEE, J.

The first point made for the plaintiff in error is upon the demurrer to the whole declaration for alleged misjoinder of counts'. Some of the counts are upon causes of action for which trespass could certainly be maintained, and these, it is said, could not be united in the same declaration with the others which are strictly appropriate to the action of trespass on the case.

*That this would be so at common law, there is no doubt, and such misjoinder would be fatal on general demurrer. Our statute however in relation to the action of trespass on the case, has, I think, materially modified the rule -as to misjoinders. By ch. 148 of the Code of Virginia, section 7, (at p. 589) it is provided that in any case in which an action of trespass will lie, there may be maintained an action of trespass on the case.—Thus, then, upon the several causes of action in this declaration for which trespass would lie, case may be maintained; and as the action is case, and the declaration purports in its introduction, to be wholly in case, those counts for the matters of which it is said trespass would lie, may be considered counts in case with as much propriety, as counts in trespass. And being for matters which are made the subjects of counts in case by the statute, there can be no reason why they may not be properly united with others which are appropriate at common law to. the same action. That the object of the legislature was to remove the difficulties at common law growing out of the nice distinctions between the cases in which trespass was the proper action and those in which the remedy was case, may be true, but in carrying out this object, they have abolished in effect the distinction between these different causes of action in a declaration in case; for that they may be united in such a declaration, is, as it seems to me, a necessary corollary froth, the provision which authorities case to be maintained where the action of trespass would lie also.

I think there is nothing in the objection, and that the demurrer was properly overruled.

Upon the separate demurrers to the several counts in the declaration, the counsel for the plaintiff in error has forborne to insist except as to those in which there is no averment of malice or want of probable cause; and very properly, as all those counts are clearly good. And as *to those in which neither malice nor want of probable cause is averred, I think no serious doubt can be entertained. If the party had given the bond required by law upon suing out the capias, in a suit upon it for the damages sustained by the defendant in the action by reason of his arrest and imprisonment through the act of the plaintiff or otherwise, no averment of malice or want of probable cause would be necessary; and the plaintiff cannot, be less liable nor can more be required to be averred where the capias is unlawfully sued out without giving the bond. For if one be arrested and imprisoned upon a capias sued out by another unlawfully, or without complying with the condition upon which it might lawfully be issued, and which is afterwards set aside, he is clearly entitled to recover damages for the injury he has sustained without reference to the particular motive by which the party suing out the capias may have been prompted, though where the suing out the process was through malice and without any reasonable cause, the damages would doubtless be aggravated because of the motives by which the party was actuated. 2 Stark. Ev. 261; 3 Rob. P. 619; Parsons v. Lloyd, 3 Wils. R. 341; S. C. 2 Wm. Bl. R. 845; Turner v. Felgate, 1 Lev. R. 95; 1 Sid. R. 272; T. Ray. R. 73; Barker v. Braham, 3 Wils. R. 368; Codrington v. Lloyd, 8 Ad. & El. 449 (35 Eng. C. L. R. 433); Curry v. Pringle, 11 John. R. 444; Bissell v. Gold, 1 Wend. R. 210. And even in case of a misnomer in the capias though the right party be arrested, yet he can maintain trespass against the plaintiff, and the process will be no justification. Shadgett v. Clipson, 8 East’s R. 328; Mead v. Hawes, 7 Cow. R. 332; Griswold v. Sedgwick, 6 Cow. R. 456; Same v. Same, 1 Wend. R. 126.

I think there was no just objection to the proof of the fee paid by the plaintiff in the action to counsel to set aside the process under which he had been arrested, and *procure his discharge from imprisonment. Several of the counts in the declaration allege that the plaintiff was put to great charges and costs in obtaining his release from imprisonment, and the fee paid for that purpose to counsel might be given in evidence to the jury. Bull. N. P. 13; Sandback v. Thomas, 1 Stark. R. 306; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 456, and authorities cited in note n, 1 and 3.

The whole fee paid would not necessarily be allowed by the jury, for they would judge of its reasonableness, and in their estimate would allow only what they thought just and proper on that account; but there could be no objection to its being proven that the fee was paid.

' In reference to the subject of the second and third bills of exceptions it may be re-, marked that whilst it is not at all times easy to see the exact bearing of evidence offered upon the issue between the parties, it is sometimes difficult to say that it is so ■utterly irrelevant that it may mislead the jury and should for .that cause be excluded’. Evidence may seem not to bear immediately [37]*37and. directly upon the contested matters of fact in the cause, yet it may serve to illustrate the conduct of a party by throwing light upon the motives by which he may have been prompted; and where this is a material inquiry if the evidence tend to do this in any degree, it ought not to be rejected although the court tnay think it not entitled to great weight with the jury. Now the evidence of both Phillips and Gibson was of this character. A short time before the capias was sued out, the defendant spoke to the witness Phillips in an angry and excited manner about the plaintiff, complained of an alleged injury that he had received from him, and intimated a determined purpose “to go to work” upon him, and to make -some use of the matter against him at the next Circuit court. The feeling which he manifested was of any thing but a kind and friendly character.—The witness Gibson was the president of a branch bank *at which the plaintiff had been a borrower, “in the town of Romney, some distance from the residence of these parties; and being on a visit to Randolph county, he fell in with the defendant; and in conversation, the latter very unnecessarily introduced the subject of the indebtedness of “the Harpers,” (no doubt including the plaintiff,) and made a remark plainly calculated to impair their credit at bank, and which appears to have had its effect upon the mind of the witness. If the testimony of these witnesses did not bear directly upon the subject of the capias sued out by the defendant, it certainly tended to show the mind and feeling of the defendant towards the plaintiff, and with the other circumstances of the case might serve to make out the malice imputed to him.—Chambers v. Robinson, 1 Str. R. 691; 2 Stark. Ev. $ 64; 2 Greenl. Ev. $ 453, and authorities cited. I cannot undertake to say that the Circuit court erred in permitting it to go to the jury to have such weight as they might think it entitled to.

The fourth bill of exceptions was to the introduction of the record of the case in which the affidavit was made and the capias complained of sued out. It is conceded that so much of the record as disclosed the suing out of the process, and that it was quashed by the court, might properly have been in evidence, but it is insisted that all the rest was inadmissible.

In general, when a record is to be given in evidence, the whole record should be produced.

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Bluebook (online)
16 Gratt. 64, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parsons-v-harper-va-1860.