Cotchet v. Dixon
Court of Appeals of South Carolina
This was an action on the case for selling to the plaintiff an unsound negro, John Thomas was offered as a witness for the plaintiff. Defendants attorney objected to his testimony on the ground of interest, and to support this allegation called upon other witnesses, who stated that Thomas had previously said he was interested. The plaintiff’s counsel insisted that Thomas’ previous declarations of interest did not render him incompetent and still offered him as a witness.
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This was an action on the case for selling to the plaintiff an unsound negro, John Thomas was offered as a witness for the plaintiff. Defendants attorney objected to his testimony on the ground of interest, and to support this allegation called upon other witnesses, who stated that Thomas had previously said he was interested. The plaintiff’s counsel insisted that Thomas’ previous declarations of interest did not render him incompetent and still offered him as a witness. The Court rejected him. The plaintiff’s counsel then offered to swear Thomas on his voir dire in relation to his interest,…
1Opinion of the Court
Curia per
JohnsoN, J.
On the questions which have arisen in this case there has been great diversity of opinion, and the decided cases are so directly opposed to each other, that in the adjudication of our own Courts it will be necessary to have resort to principle as the only safe umpire between the authorities which are arranged on the different sides. In Calston vs. Nickols, 1 Ha. and J. 105, the declarations of a witness that he was interested in the event of the suit were admitted in evidence on an objection to his competency. A case corresponding with this in every respect and in which…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Peirce v. ChaseMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1812
- Fernsler v. CarlinSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1817