VEXATIOUS SUITS

torts. A vexatictus suit is one which has been instituted maliciously, and without probable cause, whereby a damage has ensued to the defendant. 2. The suit is either a criminal prosecution, a conviction before a magistrate, or a civil action. The suit need not be altogether without foundation; if the part which is groundless has subjected the party to an inconvenience, to which he would not have been exposed had the valid cause of complaint alone have been insisted on, it is injurious. 3. To make it vexatious, the suit must have been instituted maliciously. As malice is not in any case of injurious conduct necessarily to be inferred from the total absence of probable cause for exciting it, and in the present instance the law will not allow it to be inferred from that circumstance, for fear of being mistaken, it casts upon the suffering party the onus of proving express malice. 4. It is necessary that the prosecution should have been carried on without probable cause. The law presumes that probable cause existed until the party aggrieved can show to the contrary. Hence he is bound to show the total absence of probable cause.