Fleetwood Retail Corp. of NM v. LeDoux

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• explaining that “the tort of malicious abuse of process” is a combination of “the formerly separate torts of malicious prosecution and abuse of process”
• recognizing a party may bring a malicious-abuse-of-process claim as a counterclaim or in a separate action
• holding that “lack of probable cause is not a claim-by-claim inquiry, but, rather, is determined as to the lawsuit in its entirety, and any recovery by the original plaintiff will be an absolute defense to a malicious abuse of process claim founded on lack of probable cause.”
• stating that impropriety can be shown through an act that otherwise indicates the wrongful use of proceedings including “oppressive conduct in connect with the arrest of a person” or “illegal detention” (citation omitted)
• defining probable cause in the malicious-abuse-of-process context as “a reasonable belief, founded on known facts established after a reasonable pre-filing investigation that a claim can be established to the satisfaction of a court or jury”
• “In DeVaney, we created the tort of malicious abuse of process by merging the formerly separate torts of malicious prosecution and abuse of process.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).