Evincing malice; done with malice and an evil design; willful. Malicious abandonment. In criminal law. The desertion of a wife or husband without just cause.Malicious abuse of process. The malicious misuse or misapplication of process to accomplish a purpose not warranted or commanded by the writ; the malicious perversion of a regularly issued process, whereby a result not lawfully or properly obtained on a writ is secured; not including cases where the process was procured maliciously but not abused or misused after its issuance. Bartlett v. Christhilf, 69 Md. 219, 14 Atl. 521; Mayer v. Walter, 64 Pa. 283; Humphreys v. Sutcliffe, 192 Pa. 336, 43 Atl. 954, 73 Am. St. Rep. 819; Kline v. Hibbard, 80 Hun, 50, 29 N. Y. Supp. 807.Malicious act. A wrongful act intentionally done without legal justification or excuse ; an unlawful act done wilfully or purposely to injure another. Bowers v. State, 24 Tex. App. 542, 7 S. W. 247, 5 Am. St. Rep. 901; Payne v. Western & A. R. Co., 13 Lea (Tenn.) 526, 49 Am. Rep. 666; Brandt v. Morning Journal Ass’n, 81 App. Div. 183, 80 N. Y. Supp. 1002.Malicious arrest. An arrest made willfully and without probable cause, but in the course of a regular proceeding.Malicious injury. An injury committed against a person at the prompting of malice or hatred towards him, or done spitefully or wantonly. State v. Huegin, 110 Wis. 189, 85 N. W. 1046, 62 L. R. A. 700; Wing v. Wing, 66 Me. 62, 22 Am. Rep. 548Malicious mischief. A term applied to the willful destruction of personal property, from actual ill will or resentment towards its owner or possessor. People v. Petheram, 64 Mich. 252, 31 N. W. 188; First Nat. Bank v. Burkett, 101 111. 394, 40 Am. Rep. 209; State v. Robinson, 20 N. C. 130, 32 Am. Dec. 661; Thomas v. State, 30 Ark. 435. Malicious mischief or damage is a species of injury to private property, which the law considers as a public crime. This is such as is done, not animo furandi, or with an intent of gaining by another’s loss, but either out of a spirit of wanton cruelty or wicked revenge. In this latter light it bears a near relation to the crime of arson, for, as that affects the habitation, so does this the property, of individuals; and therefore any damage arising from this mischievous disposition, though only a trespass at the common law, is now, by several statutes, made severely penal. Jacob.Malicious prosecution. A judicial proceeding instituted against a person out of the prosecutor’s malice and ill will, with the intention of injuring him, without probable cause to sustain it, the process and proceedings being regular and formal, but not justified by the facts. For this injury an action on the case lies, called the “action of malicious prosecution.” Hicks v. Brantley, 102 Ga. 264, 29 S. E.,459; Eggett v. Allen, 119 Wis. 625, 96 N. W. 803; Harpham v. Whitney, 77 111. 38; Lauzon v. Charroux, 18 R. I. 467, 28 Atl. 975; Frisbie v. Morris-, 75 Conn. 637, 55 Atl. 9.Malicious trespass. The act of one who maliciously or mischievously injures or causes to be injured any property of another or any public property. State v. McKee, 109 Ind. 497, 10 N. E. 405; Hannel v. State, 4 Ind. App. 485, 30 N. E. 1118.