False imprisonment and malicious prosecution
LUG-101 Law of Torts including Motor Vehicle Accident and Consumer Protection Act, Unit III: False imprisonment and malicious prosecution. · LLB · 60 min
Two torts that protect personal liberty and reputation against abuse of power. The lecture defines false imprisonment and works through its essentials (total restraint, absence of lawful justification, the irrelevance of the plaintiff's knowledge, means of escape and conditions of exit) with Bird v. Jones, Meering v. Grahame-White Aviation, Robinson v. Balmain New Ferry and Herd v. Weardale Steel; the Indian constitutional remedy for illegal detention (Rudul Sah, Bhim Singh, Nilabati Behera, D.K. Basu); the defences; and BNS ss. 126-127. It then defines malicious prosecution and explains the five things a plaintiff must prove, with Mohammad Amin v. Jogendra Kumar Bannerjee on what is a "prosecution", Hicks v. Faulkner on reasonable and probable cause and Glinski v. McIver, and ends with a comparison table. It answers 2019-20 Q B4, 2022-23 Q2(a), 2023-24 Q4(b) and 2025-26 Q3(a)(ii).
Objectives
- Define false imprisonment and state its two essentials with the leading cases.
- Explain why a partial restraint is not imprisonment (Bird v. Jones) and why the plaintiff's knowledge is not required (Meering v. Grahame-White Aviation).
- Apply the rules on reasonable means of escape and contractual conditions of exit (Robinson v. Balmain New Ferry, Herd v. Weardale Steel).
- Explain the Indian public-law remedy of compensation for illegal detention under Articles 21, 32 and 226 (Rudul Sah, Bhim Singh).
- Define malicious prosecution and state the five things the plaintiff must prove, especially the absence of reasonable and probable cause.
- Distinguish false imprisonment from malicious prosecution and from the crimes of wrongful confinement (BNS s. 127) and false charge (BNS s. 248).
Slides
- False imprisonment: meaning
- The essentials of false imprisonment
- Total restraint: Bird v. Jones (1845)
- Knowledge not necessary: Meering v. Grahame-White Aviation (1919)
- Means of escape and conditions of exit
- India: illegal detention as a constitutional tort
- Defences to false imprisonment
- Malicious prosecution: definition and essentials
- Reasonable and probable cause
- Malice, damage and civil proceedings
- False imprisonment and malicious prosecution compared
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