After judgment by nihil dicit for the plaintiff, and damages found by inquisition to fifteen pounds, it was moved in arrest of judgment, that this action lay not; for nothing is alleged but only words, and no act nor insult: and causeless suits on fear are no cause of action.
Sed non allocatur: for the threatening to mayhem, and suits, whereby they durst not work or buy, is a great damage to the plaintiff, and his losing the benefit of his quarries a good cause of action: and although it be not shown how he was possessed for years, by what title, &c., yet that being but a conveyance to this action, was held to be well enough. And adjudged for the plaintiff.[[559]]
TARLETON v. M’GAWLEY
At Nisi Prius, coram Lord Kenyon, C. J., December 21, 1804.
Reported in Peake, 205.
This was a special action on the case. The declaration stated that the plaintiffs had sent a vessel called the “Bannister,” with a crew on board, under the command of one Thomas Smith, and loaded with goods proper for trading with the natives, to a part of the coast of Africa called Cameroon, to trade with the natives there. That while the last-mentioned ship was lying off Cameroon, a canoe with some natives on board came to the same for the purpose of establishing a trade, and went back to the shore, of which defendant had notice. And that he well knowing the premises, but contriving and maliciously intending to hinder and deter the natives from trading with the said Thomas Smith, for the benefit of the plaintiffs, with force and arms, fired from a certain ship called the “Othello” of which he was master and commander, a certain cannon loaded with gunpowder and shot, at the said canoe, and killed one of the natives on board the same. Whereby the natives of the said coast were deterred and hindered from trading with the said T. Smith for the benefit, &c., and plaintiffs lost their trade.
Lord Kenyon. This action is brought by the plaintiffs to recover a satisfaction for a civil injury which they have sustained. The injury complained of is, that by the improper conduct of the defendant the natives were prevented from trading with the plaintiffs. The whole of the case is stated on the record, and if the parties desire it, the opinion of the court may hereafter be taken whether it will support an action. I am of opinion it will. Had this been an accidental thing, no action could have been maintained; but it is proved that the defendant had expressed an intention not to permit any to trade, until a debt due from the natives to himself was satisfied. If there was any court in that country to which he could have applied for justice he might have done so, but he had no right to take the law into his own hands.[[560]]
HART v. ALDRIDGE
In the King’s Bench, May 3, 1774.
Reported in Cowper, 54.
This came before the court on a case reserved upon the following question: Whether under the circumstances of this case the plaintiff was entitled to recover? It was an action of trespass on the case for enticing away several of the plaintiff’s servants, who used to work for him in the capacity of journeymen shoemakers. The jury found that Martin and Clayton were employed as journeymen shoemakers by the plaintiff, but for no determinate time, but only by the piece, and had, at the time of the trespass laid, each of them a pair of shoes unfinished; that the defendant persuaded them to enter into his service, and to leave these shoes unfinished, which they accordingly did.
Mr. Darwell, for the plaintiff, stated it to be a question of common law, and that the only point for the opinion of the court was, “whether a journeyman was such a servant as the law takes notice of?” In support of which proposition he insisted that a journeyman is as much a servant as any other person who works for hire or wages; that neither in reason nor at common law is there any distinction between a servant in one capacity or another, and that the injury of seduction is in all cases the same, though the recompense in damages may be different. He pressed the argument ab inconvenienti, stating that it would be of great detriment to the town, where the whole trade was in a great measure carried on by this sort of servant. That the verdict had found the defendant to be apprised of the retainer of the servants, it being in proof that he had desired them to leave their work then in hand unfinished.
Mr. Willes, contra. The single question is, whether the enticing away a journeyman shoemaker, who is hired to make a single pair of shoes, is such an injury to his master as that an action will lie for it. Now the jury have found that there was no hiring for any determinate time, but only by the piece: if so, they could not be the plaintiff’s servants; for the term “journeyman” does not import that they belong to any particular master.
Lord Mansfield interrupted him. The question is, whether saying that such a one is a man’s journeyman, is as much as to say that he is such a man’s servant; that is, whether the jury, by finding him to be the plaintiff’s journeyman, do not ex vi termini find him to be his servant. A journeyman is a servant by the day; and it makes no difference whether the work is done by the day or by the piece. He was certainly retained to finish the work he had undertaken, and the defendant knowingly enticed him to leave it unfinished.