a criminal action for his breach of
the public peace. Another illustration may be given. A clerk embezzles
money from his bank. It sues him and perhaps his bondsmen and recovers
the money. Embezzlement, however, is a criminal offense, and the
recovery of the money taken does not affect in any way the right of
the state to proceed against the embezzler. Indeed, an individual who
has been wronged cannot by any restitution or settlement that he may
make with the wrongdoer impair the right of the state to punish him.

Torts or wrongs are very numerous for which the wrongdoer may be held
liable. The first to be mentioned is false imprisonment. The law
punishes false imprisonment as a crime; the person unlawfully
imprisoned also has a civil action for damages. A person is said to be
imprisoned "in any case where he is arrested by force and against his
will, although it be on the high street or elsewhere and not in a
house." Mere words are not an arrest. If an officer says, "I arrest
you," and you run away, there is no arrest. But if an officer touches
you and takes you into custody there is an arrest even though you run
away afterward.

A malicious prosecution is another wrong. A person who brings his
action for this wrong must prove four things: first, that the
prosecution has terminated in the complainant's favor; second, that it
was instituted maliciously; third, that it was brought without
probable cause; fourth, that it damaged or injured the complainant.
The term malice means something more than "the intentional doing of a
wrongful act to the injury of another without legal excuse." It means
that the original prosecutor was actuated by some "improper or
sinister motive." The term "probable cause" requires explanation.
Nothing is better settled, says one of the courts, than this, that
when the person who brings such an action against another "submits his
facts to his attorney, who advises they are sufficient, and he acts
thereon in good faith, such advice is a defense to an action for
malicious prosecution." That such advice may be a good defense a full
and honest disclosure of all the facts must be made to him. Such
advice will not serve as a screen if based on a fragmentary,
incomplete statement of facts.

A very common tort is an assault and battery. A person who threatens
another with immediate personal violence, having the means and
opportunity for executing the threat, commits an assault for which
damages may