Opinion ID: 2375795
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: was the trial court's dismissal of the abuse of process action proper?

Text: The cause of action for abuse of process has been defined as the technical designation of the irregular or wrongful employment of a judicial proceeding. Stoll Oil Refining Co. v. Pierce, Ky., 337 S.W.2d 263, 266 (1970). The distinction between an action for malicious prosecution and an action for abuse of process is that a malicious prosecution consists in maliciously causing process to be issued, whereas an abuse of process is the employment of legal process for some other purpose other than that which it was intended by the law to effect. Moreover, an action for abuse of process will not lie unless there has been an injury to the person or his property. Injury to name or reputation is not sufficient. 1 Am.Jur.2d, Abuse of Process, Sec. 4; Flynn v. Songer, Ky., 399 S.W.2d 491 (1966); Stoll Oil Refining Co. v. Pierce, Ky., 337 S.W.2d 263 (1960). The trial court and the Court of Appeals were correct in dismissing that part of the doctors' complaint relating to an alleged abuse of process.