§ 138 Other Exceptions to the Irrelevance of Motives
Criminal attempts constitute, as we have seen, the first of the exceptions to the rule that a person’s ulterior intent or motive is irrelevant in law. A second exception comprises all those cases in which a particular intent forms part of the definition of a criminal offence. Burglary, for example, consists in breaking and entering a dwelling-house by night with intent to commit a felony therein. So forgery consists in making a false document with intent to defraud. In all such instances the ulterior intent is the source, in whole or in part, of the mischievous tendency of the act, and is therefore material in law.
In civil as opposed to criminal liability the ulterior intent is very seldom relevant. In almost all cases the law looks to the act alone, and makes no inquiries into the motives from which it proceeds. There are, however, certain exceptions even in the civil law, and the chief, if not all, of these fall within the principle that a harmful act may be damnum sine injuria if done from a proper motive and without malice, but loses this protection so soon as it proceeds from some motive of which the law does not approve. It may be expedient in the public interest to allow certain specified kinds of harm to be done to individuals, so long as they are done for some good and sufficient reason; but the ground of this privilege falls away so soon as it is abused for bad ends. In such cases, therefore, malice is an essential element in the cause of action. Examples of wrongs of this class are defamation (in cases of privilege) and malicious prosecution. In these instances the plaintiff must prove malice, because in all of them the defendant’s act is one which falls under the head of damnum sine injuria so long, but so long only, as it is done with good intent.