Grant v. Thompson
Supreme Court of Connecticut
This was an action on a promissory note; tried in the county court of Litchfield county. The defendant pleaded non-assumpsit, with notice, that at the time of the alleged execution of the note, he was a lunatic and non compos mentis.
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This was an action on a promissory note; tried in the county court of Litchfield county. The defendant pleaded non-assumpsit, with notice, that at the time of the alleged execution of the note, he was a lunatic and non compos mentis. For the purpose of proving the lunacy of the defendant, and his incompetency, arising from an entire loss of his reason and understanding, the defendant offered evidence to prove, that for some time before, and at the time of, and subsequent to, the alleged execution of the note, he had, in consequence of grief, misfortune and sickness, wholly lost his reason and…
1Opinion of the Court
Hosmer, Ch. J.
This case presents the enquiry, whether the defendant was non compos mentis at the execution of the note in question; and to establish this fact, the defendant was permitted to show certain acts evincive of a continued and uninterrupted lunacy, from a period commencing before the note was given, and terminating some time after. In the investigation of a point, which often is of great difficulty, it is frequently indispensible, to go into a history of the supposed lunatic’s mind, both before, at, and after his contract, in order to ascertain his real condition, at the moment of…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Dickinson v. BarberMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1812
- Poole v. RichardsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1807
- Gardner v. PrestonSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1805
3Cited by34 opinions
- Anderson v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1922
- Brown v. MitchellTexas Supreme Court · 1895
- State v. PikeSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1870
- Beaubien v. CicotteMichigan Supreme Court · 1864
- Bever v. SpanglerSupreme Court of Iowa · 1895
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