From two interesting (and little-known) 1840s American cases that point in somewhat different directions.
[1.] In Commonwealth v. Armstrong, 1 Pa. L.J. Rep. 146 (Ct. Quarter Sess. Lycoming County 1842) (Lewis, J., apparently writing for three judges), the father threatened a Baptist minister with violence for baptizing the father's 17-year-old daughter (who had already been baptized Presbyterian, and whom the father had warned the minister not to baptize). The court concluded that the father had acted illegally, and ordered him to put up a $500 bond to assure his future good behavior. But because the decision of who should pay court costs was discretionary, the court concluded that it should evaluate the complainant minister's culpability as well:
If [the minister] has interfered with the lawful authority of the father over his own offspring, in its minority, and therefore provoked him in his excited feelings, to meditate the personal injury, and to make the threats complained of, it would be just that the [minister] should pay the costs which his own first wrongful act had occasioned.
