See also:
Bird v Jones; QBD 11 Jan 1845
References: [1845] EWHC QB J64, (1845) 7 QB 742, (1845) 115 ER 668, (1845) LJ QB 82, (1845) 5 LT OS 46, (1845) 10 JP 4, (1845) 9 Jur 870
Links: Bailii Ratio: A section of public road was closed off to provide a vantage point for a boat race. The plaintiff refused to be excluded, and complained that he had not been allowed to use the public highway, and had therefore been imprisoned.
Held: (majority) 'there was no imprisonment. To call it so appears to me to confound partial obstruction and disturbance with total obstruction and detention. A prison may have its boundary large or narrow, visible and tangible, or, though real, still in the conception only; it may itself be moveable or fixed: but a boundary it must have; and that boundary the party imprisoned must be prevented from passing; he must be prevented from leaving that place, within the ambit of which the party imprisoning would confine him, except by prison-breach.'
Torts - Other