Abel v. Fitch
Supreme Court of Connecticut
This was an action on the case, alleging, that the defendant, by means of a dam on his own land, had raised the water of a stream flowing through the adjoining land of the plaintiffs, four feet higher than he had any right to raise it, and thereby caused it to inundate the plaintiffs’ land.
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This was an action on the case, alleging, that the defendant, by means of a dam on his own land, had raised the water of a stream flowing through the adjoining land of the plaintiffs, four feet higher than he had any right to raise it, and thereby caused it to inundate the plaintiffs’ land. The cause was tried, on the general issue, at Norwich, March term, 1849. To rebut evidence introduced by the plaintiffs, tending to prove, that the dam in question had been raised by N. H. Fitch, the proprietor thereof, in the year 1833, to a greater height than he had a right to raise it, the defendant…
1Opinion of the CourtEllsworth, J.
We think the paper signed by J. O. Hopkins, offered in evidence by the defendant, is clearly inadmissible. It is nothing more than the opinion of a deceased man, given three years after this dam was built, as to what was its height when built, he then being miller. And further, this opinion is drawn from Hopkins, by the defendant, some two years after the dispute commenced. The submission speaks of the dispute as existing in 1834, and the writing of Hopkins is dated January, 1836.
Doubtless, entries and admissions of deceased people are, in some cases, admissible. But the evidence now offered,…
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- McClure v. Middletown Trust Co.Supreme Court of Connecticut · 1920
- Lebrun v. Boston & Maine RailroadSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1928
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