Stocker v. Boston & Maine Railroad

The correctness of the charge must be determined on the situation presented by the record at the time it was given, or at most before the discharge of the jury. Facts then known neither to the court nor to the jury are immaterial on that issue. There is, therefore, no merit in the plaintiffs’ exception to the refusal of the court to permit proof of facts which had not appeared at the trial.

The exception to the charge was general. It is now claimed, however, that the court in effect directed the jury to disregard any argument which might have been made upon the defendant’s failure to call as…