[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
The edition of May 12, 1849, carried a report of a legal action involving a Newfoundland (black coat).
This case, Lovell v. Barty, was an action for trespass, false imprisonment of a dog, and larceny, all due to an innocent misunderstanding, it seems.
A few months early "a large black Newfoundland dog" belonging to the defendant, Barty, followed a policeman on his patrol. Assuming the dog lived in the neighborhood, the policeman left the dog in the care of a toll-gate keeper named Lovell. Having somehow heard that his dog was at Mr. Lovell's house, Barty (defendant), went there with a policeman and charged Lovell with stealing and unlawfully detaining his dog, even though Lovell explained that the dog had been left with him by a policeman. Lovell was nevertheless charged with theft and spent a night in jail before being bailed out. His court case was heard the next day and the charge of theft was dismissed.
But Lovell was angry at losing "a week's employment" — how that was the case when he only spent one night in jail and one day in court is never explained in the article — and at "the annoyance he had been subjected to," so he was now suing Mr. Barty for having had him arrested in the first place. Barty, the defendant, argued in his defense that because his son had not been allowed to take the Newf away, he assumed Barty had stolen it with the intention of keeping it for himself.
The jury didn't buy it, finding for Mr. Lovell, and awarding him a whopping $25£ in damages (approximately a bit more than $3,300 US in 2020).