Chase v. Blodgett
Superior Court of New Hampshire
Assumpsit. On the trial the plaintiff offered one Doyle as a witness, to whose admission the defendant objected, on the ground that he had been twice convicted of infamous offences, in the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts. The plaintiff contended that the objection went only to the credit of the witness, and the defendant that it went to the competency. The court ruled that the witness was admissible, to which the defendant excepted.
1Opinion of the CourtParker, C. J.
The ruling in this ease undoubtedly has very respectable authority to sustain it. The admissibility of a conviction, in another government, to exclude a witness from testifying, was discussed very much at large in The Commonwealth vs. Green, 17 Mass. R. 515, in which the court came to the conclusion that a conviction, of an infamous crime, in a foreign government, and even in another of the United States, was not sufficient to exclude the witness. It does not seem to have been settled, in that case, that it could be admitted to affect his credibility ; but. some intimations that such might be…
2Cited by4 opinions
- Brady v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1945
- Clement v. BrooksSuperior Court of New Hampshire · 1842
- Fidelity-Phenix Fire Ins. Co. of New York v. MurphySupreme Court of Alabama · 1936
- Hoitt v. MoultonSuperior Court of New Hampshire · 1850