CRUELTY - Black's Law Dictionary

The intentional and malicious infliction of physical suffering upon living creatures, particularly human beings; or, as applied to the latter, the wanton, malicious, and unnecessary infliction of pain upon the body, or the feelings and emotions; abusive treatment; inhumanity; outrage. Jacobs v. Jacobs, 95 Conn. 57, 110 A. 455, 456.                      $

Chiefly used in the law of divorce, in such phrases as "cruel and abusive treatment," "cruel and barbarous treatment," or "cruel and inhuman treatment," as to the meaning of which, and of "cruelty" in this sense, see Rudnick v. Rudnick, 288 Mass. 256, 192 N.E. 501; Martin v. Martin, 154 Pa.Super. 313, 35 A.2d 546, 548; Price v. Price, 181 Miss. 539, 179 So. 855, 857; Campbell v. Campbell, 129 Pa.Super. 106, 194 A. 760, 763; Avdoyan v. Avdoyan, 265 App.Div. 763, 40 N.Y.S.2d 665, 668; Lowry v. Lowry, 170 Ga. 349, 153 S.E. 11, 14, 70 A.L.R. 488.

For "Extreme and Repeated Cruelty," see that title.

As between husband and wife. Those acts which affect the life, the health, or even the comfort, of the party aggrieved and give a reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, are called "cruelty." What merely wounds the feelings Is seldom admitted to be cruelty, unless the act be accompanied with bodily injury, either actual or menaced. Mere austerity of temper, petulance of manners, rudeness of language, a want of civil attention and accommodation, even occasional sallies of passion, will not amount to legal cruelty; a fortiori, the denial of little indulgences and particular accommodations, which the delicacy of the world is apt to number among its necessaries, is not cruelty. The negative descriptions of cruelty are perhaps the best, under the infinite variety of cases that may occur, by showing what is not cruelty. Evans v. Evans, 1 Hagg.Const. 35; Westmeath v. Westmeath, 4 Eng.Ecc. 238, 311, 312.

Cruelty includes both willfulness and malicious temper of mind with which an act is done, as well as a high degree of pain inflicted. Acts merely accidental, though they inflict great pain, are not "cruel," in the sense of the word as used in statutes against cruelty. Comm. v. McClellan, 101 Mass. 34.

Cruelty to Animals

The infliction of physical pain, suffering, or death upon an animal, when not necessary for purposes of training or discipline or (in the case of death) to procure food or to release the animal from incurable suffering, but done wantonly, for mere sport, for the indulgence of a cruel and vin- dictive temper, or with reckless indifference to its pain. State v. Porter, 112 N.C. 887, 16 S.E. 915; v. State v. Bosworth, 54 Conn. 1, 4 A. 248; McKinne v. State, 81 Ga. 164, 9 S.E. 1091; Waters v. People, 23 Colo. 33, 46 P. 112, 33 L.R.A. 836,

Legal Cruelty

See Legal Cruelty.

CRUISE. A voyage undertaken for a given purpose; a voyage for the purpose of making captures jure belli. The Brutus, 2 Gall. 538, Fed. Cas.No.2,060.

A voyage or expedition in quest of vessels or fleets of the enemy which may be expected to sail in any particular track at a certain season of the year. The region in which these cruises are performed is usually termed the "rendezvous," or "cruising latitude." Bouvier.

A report of a timber surveyor showing the character and amount of timber in a stand. Jones v. United States, C.C.A.Or., 265 F. 235, 239,

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