Hurgren

This is an action to recover damages against defendant for the alleged prosecution of certain civil suits against plaintiff maliciously and without probable cause. The court below granted a nonsuit, and gave judgment for defendant, and from the judgment plaintiff appeals.

The learned judge of the trial court granted the nonsuit upon the ground that it had not been shown that the former suits complained of as malicious had been determined upon the merits in favor of the defendant therein; and this view was sustained when the appeal was decided here in department. .But upon further consideration of the question we are satisfied that, whatever may have been some of the former decisions in England and this country, it is now the well-established rule that a verdict or final determination upon the merits of the malicious civil suit or criminal prosecution complained of is not necessary to the maintenance of an action for malicious prosecution, but that it is sufficient to show that the former proceeding had been legally terminated. The fact that such legal termination would not be a bar to another civil suit or criminal prosecution founded on the same alleged cause is no defense to…