by George Howard Earle, Jr.

“ Great discussion has been had as to whether the damage must be to a trader, or to one in the way of his trade, or one in matters involving national trade. This subject seems free from difficulty. We are all citizens of a common country—a wrongful act prohibited, and by proper authority, and damage promised to those who suffer from that act, must be redressed! If there be, for example, a conspiracy against national trade, there can be no reason to doubt that any one injured by anything done as part of or in pursuance of that conspiracy should recover. ”

“ The fundamental rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, considered as individual possessions, are secured by those maxims of constitutional law which are the monuments showing the victorious progress of the race in securing to men the blessings of civilization under the reign of just and equal laws. * * * The very idea that one man may be compelled to hold his * * * means of living or any material right essential to the enjoyment of life at the mere will of another, seems to be intolerable in any country where freedom prevails, as being the essence of slavery itself. ”

“ Speaking broadly, the cases in which it is not necessary to prove special damage in an action for tort are cases in which the act done is manifestly dangerous, so much so that instinct calls at once for redress, and would take it but for the law. ”

“ It is, too, often absurdly argued, that if "a means" causing damage is an act within State jurisdiction, the national jurisdiction is ousted by the State's, though the act was done in pursuance of an attack on national trade ”

“ The intentional, malicious, and repeated interference by the defendants with the exercise of personal rights and privileges secured to the plaintiff by the Constitutiontion of the United States * * * constitutes, as we think, a wrong and injury not the subject of compensation by a mere money standard, but fairly within the doctrine where exemplary damages have been allowed. ”

“ Generally speaking, every willful interference with a franchise is actionable without regard to the defendant's act being done in good faith by reason of a mistaken notion of duty or claim of right, or being consciously wrongful. 'If a man hath a franchise and is hindered in the enjoyment thereof an action doth lie, which is an action upon the case. ”