Beveridge v. Rawson

Citations

• 51 Ill. 504

Syllabus

<p>1. Exemplary damages—in am, action for seizing and selling the property of one person wpon an execution against another. Where the property of one person is seized upon an execution against another, and sold, and the proceeds applied upon the debt, in an action of trespass de honis asportatis by the owner of the property against the officer and plaintiff in the execution, in the absence of malice or abuse of process, or a desire to do injury, the damages should be compensatory only.</p> <p>2. Same—what is evidence of malice in such case. The mere fact that the property was taken against the repeated remonstrances of the owner, and his warning to the defendants that thejproperty belonged to him, would not, of itself, show that the seizure and sale were malicious, and to instruct a jury that the existence of such fact is sufficient to authorize the finding of exemplary damages, would be erroneous.</p>