Where a cook gave a sculleryman employed in the same house some scraps of meat and dripping and some plates in which to carry the scraps, and the sculleryman was arrested at the instigation of the butler on leaving the house on suspicion of having stolen the things, and he explained that he had received them from the cook, who being thereupon questioned confirmed this story, yet notwithstanding, the sculleryman was charged before the Magistrate with theft, but the case was dismissed, apparently for want of a prosecutor, and he then brought an action of malicious prosecution against the butler, and absolution from the instance was granted, the Court disallowed the appeal.
Source: wiktionary