Court Opinion

ID: 9688666
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:59:49.759746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:41.036342
License: Public Domain

Mulroney, J.
(dissenting) — I respectfully dissent. There is authority for the holding of the majority opinion but I think . that holding represents the minority view. In the note in 150 A. L. R., page 899, it is stated:
“In what is at least a numerical majority of the jurisdictions, it has been held that .an action of malicious prosecution will lie for the institution of a civil action maliciously and without probable cause, even though there has been no' interference with the person or property of the defendant in the original suit, and no special injury is shown.”
*169Cases from some twenty jurisdictions are cited as supporting the above view. I would be the last to criticize any holding merely because it is not supported by the majority of the jurisdictions, but when one analyzes the reason giving rise to the rule that the action will not lie, the fact that a majority of the jurisdictions holds it will becomes important. What is the reason given in the opinions holding no action will lie for maliciously bringing a groundless civil action when there has been no interference with the person or property of the defendant? The reason should be good for there is almost no place in the administration of justice for immunizing a wrongdoer against his maliciously inflicted harm. And let no one think the mere bringing of a civil suit cannot result in harm to the defendant even though there is no interference with his person or property'. The simple illustration of the groundless suit against the food merchant for damages for selling adulterated food, or the groundless suit against the doctor for malpractice; suits that are to be dismissed when trial day comes, will serve to show the harm that can be perpetrated under the majority opinion here. And yet the reason given for protecting the plaintiffs wlm might maliciously bring such suits is a rule of expediency. It is the reason stated in the majority opinion here: “that the result would be to encourage a vast amount of litigation.” That is why the fact, that the rule that no action will lie is not followed in most jurisdictions, is important. The only reason ever advanced was a prediction which apparently has not come to pass in most jurisdictions. Chief Justice Corliss in the leading case on this subject, Kolka v. Jones, 6 N. D. 461, 468, 71 N.W. 558, 561, 66 Am. St. Rep. 615, struck down the reason for the rule in this strong language:
“When the argument of expediency is advanced, it suffices to reply to it by pointing to those states in which it has long been the rule that an action will lie for the malicious prosecution of a civil action without probable cause. There we find no legislative change of this rule. Nor have the courts in those states made haste, because they, have discovered its impolicy, to overrule a doctrine which, it has been predicted by other courts that have refused to adopt it, would clog and choke the *170channels of litigation with a multiplicity of suits springing up as each case was decided in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant. These forebodings have not been realized. Nor, in our judgment, had they ever any foundation in reason or a knowledge of human nature. The suitor who has sustained the burden of one action will not assume the expense of a second suit unless he has a strong guaranty that he can convince a jury that the original action was instituted maliciously and without probable cause.”
I see no force in the other argument advanced in the majority opinion here, based on the absolute privilege when libelous matter is published in a pleading. Because one is privileged to libel another in an action brought to secure adjudication of a claim, he should not be privileged to maliciously injure another when the entire action is maliciously brought for a purpose other than securing adjudication of the stated claim.
I think it is of interest to note that the view taken by the majority of the jurisdictions is also the view taken by the American Law Institute.
In Restatement, Torts, volume 3, section 674, the rule stated is: “One who initiates * * * civil proceedings against another is liable to him for the harm done thereby, if * * * the proceedings are initiated * * * without probable cause, and * * * primarily for a purpose other than that of securing the adjudication of the claim on which the proceedings are based * * *.”
The above statement of the rule must be considered as the product of expert legal opinion. It was one of the objectives of the Institute to resolve irreconcilable conflicts that had developed solely by judicial opinions and state the rule of law that would promote the better administration of justice.
It is also of interest to note that in some jurisdictions where the minority rule obtains, the courts liberally construe actions as interfering with property, in order to avoid denial of the remedy, and generally it can be said the remedy is not denied when the wrongdoer is charged with maliciously bringing successive groundless suits and .later dismissing them. See 54 C. J. S., Malicious Prosecution, section 12, pages 965, 966, and *171eases cited. In our opinion in Peterson v. Peregoy & Moore Co., 180 Iowa 325, 328, 163 N.W. 224, 225, we said: “As contended, there is a tendency to liberally construe actions as interfering with property in order to avoid a denial of this remedy.”
Under the facts alleged in the petition, all admitted by the motion, there was, again in the language of Chief Justice Corliss, “a malicious perversion'of legal remedies” that resulted in harm to the defendant (page 467 of 6 N. D., page 560 of 71 N.W.). The plaintiff in this suit assumes the heavy burden of proving those facts. I think his action here should lie. I would overrule the old case of Wetmore v. Mellinger, 64 Iowa 741, 18 N.W. 870, 52 Am. Rep. 465, and follow the rule of the majority of the jurisdictions, and the rule of the Restatement, Torts, supra. I would reverse.
Hays, J., joins in this dissent.