State v. Alstead
Superior Court of New Hampshire
Information. The first count alleged that the town neglected to keep in repair a certain road; and the second count, that the town neglected to build it.
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Information. The first count alleged that the town neglected to keep in repair a certain road; and the second count, that the town neglected to build it. To prove that the road was laid out, the attorney-general offered in evidence a copy from the' records of the town of Alstead, as follows: “Laid out a road, four rods wide, from Gilsum line to Ebenezer Crane’s, beginning at Gilsum line, at a beach tree,” &c., (describing the road) “to the east meetinghouse in Alstead, by Ebenezer Crane’s. Laid out by us, this fifteenth day of June, 1807. Leonard Morse, 1 a 7 . Cyrus Kingsbury, \Selectmen.…
1Opinion of the CourtGilchrist, J.
There is no doubt that the record of the laying out of the road described in the indictment is defective in many particulars, and perhaps in all that are specified in the case ; and if it were a recent transaction these defects would be fatal to it, as evidence of the legal existence of the road.
But in transactions so ancient that the means of proving the exact state of the facts may fairly be presumed to have been lost, through the death of those who participated in them, and whose duties required them to know the whole truth; or, through the loss of the memory of them, on the part of such…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Cavis v. RobertsonSuperior Court of New Hampshire · 1838
- Metcalf v. BinghamSuperior Court of New Hampshire · 1826