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Torts - Prima Facie Tort - Liability For Instigation Of Police Investigation Or Prosecution, John H. Jackson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff organized a corporation for the purpose of collecting funds from the public to aid cancer victims. Defendant, well-known columnist engaged in soliciting money for a rival cancer fund, was alleged, inter alia, to have instigated state and federal government investigations and prosecutions that resulted in plaintiff being criminally convicted and subsequently acquitted on a new trial after appeal. As a consequence of these actions, public confidence had been destroyed in plaintiff's cancer fund corporation and it had ceased to function. Plaintiff complained that defendant's actions were done with the intention of harming plaintiff and had resulted in plaintiff's loss …