Court Opinion

ID: 9791749
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:16:58.710235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:38.251455
License: Public Domain

HOLMAN, J.,
dissenting.
The majority opinion states that
“It follows, under the undisputed evidence and as a matter of law, that since a substantial portion of defendant’s claim was for damages to the premises, an unliquidated claim, defendant did not have probable cause for the issuance of the attachment in the total sum of $496.”
I will grant that there was not probable cause for the issuance of an attachment in the total sum of *370$496. However, included within the total claim was a claim for $314 for which there was prohable cause to issue an attachment and which was sufficient to cover the sum of $105.13 which was attached. Had the $182 been left out, for which no probable cause existed to issue an attachment, the $105.13 would nevertheless have been attached. Therefore, the malicious inclusion in the affidavit of the $182 claim did not result in the attachment of plaintiff’s money and, thus, did not cause his damages.
The only basis for holding that defendant should be responsible in damages is that the protection of the public from wrongful attachments requires the attachment statutes to be construed so strictly that, upon the inclusion of an item for which there is no probable cause, not only is the attachment held invalid, but damage is presumed regardless of whether such inclusion can be shown to have caused any actual harm. This flies in the face of the almost universally recognized rule that in malicious prosecution cases arising out of civil proceedings, it is necessary to show that actual damages are caused. Prosser, Torts 875, § 114 (3d ed 1964). The majority opinion has illustrated that the only actual damage which plaintiff suffered was the loss of the use of the attached sum of $105.13. The attachment of this amount did not result from the inclusion of the improper additional amount in the affidavit. As stated before, had it been left out, the result would have been the same.
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.