Hoskins v. Somerset Coal Co.

Citations

• 219 Pa. 373
• 68 A. 843
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 580

Syllabus

<p>Malicious prosecution — False imprisonment — Contempt proceedings— Collateral attack on judgment.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for false imprisonment in contempt proceedings, a nonsuit is properly entered, because the decree of the court in contempt proceedings is not subject to collateral attack.</p> <p>A sentence for contempt is not essentially different from any other judgment, decree or sentence. It is a matter adjudicated, and it belongs to the very essence of governmental order that it cannot be reviewed except by the court that pronounced it, or by its official superior.</p> <p>Where a person has been adjudicated in contempt, but the court has discharged him on payment of costs only, he cannot maintain an action of malicious prosecution against the petitioner in the contempt proceedings on the theory that the discharge was the result of a failure to make out a case against the plaintiff. Such order was really in effect a sentence to pay the costs following an adjudication that the plaintiff was in contempt.</p>