Morrissey v. Ingham
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tout. The declaration alleged that the defendant, “with force and arms, debauched and carnally knew the plaintiff by force and against her will, and then gave her a loathsome and contagious disease.”
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Tout. The declaration alleged that the defendant, “with force and arms, debauched and carnally knew the plaintiff by force and against her will, and then gave her a loathsome and contagious disease.” Trial in the Superior Court, before Wilkinson, J., who, after a verdict for the defendant, allowed the following bill of exceptions: “ The plaintiff introduced evidence tending to prove the assault set forth in her declaration made upon her about November 1, 1867, and that she was then living in the family of the defendant and was between nine and ten years of age. The plaintiff introduced the…
1Opinion of the Court
By rmii Court.
The plaintiff fails to sustain the burden resting upon her as the excepting party as to any of the exceptions taken at the trial.
1. The plaintiff’s offer to prove by her attending physician her statements to him was rightly rejected, because it included a statement that the defendant was the person who had had intercourse with her, which could not affect the nature of her disease or the physician’s understanding thereof, and the physician’s testimony to which would be mere hearsay evidence, directly tending to prejudice the defendant.
2. The testimony of the defendant’s family…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Harrington v. HarringtonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
3Cited by7 opinions
- Roosa v. Boston Loan Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1882
- Young v. MontgomeryIndiana Supreme Court · 1903
- Commonwealth v. SpareMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1967
- Cook v. BartlettMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1901
- Winter v. Central Iowa Railway Co.Supreme Court of Iowa · 1888
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