People v. Dean
New York Supreme Court
The defendant was convicted at the last oyer and terminer of Washington county, of forging a promissory note for the payment of money, purporting to be signed by Solomon Dean, payable to Gerrit Wendell, or order, at the bank of Lansingburgh, with intent to defraud Wendell. On the trial, Solomon Dean was offered as a witness for the peo-pie; but he admitting that he had not paid the note, was objected to by the defendant’s counsel as incompetent.
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The defendant was convicted at the last oyer and terminer of Washington county, of forging a promissory note for the payment of money, purporting to be signed by Solomon Dean, payable to Gerrit Wendell, or order, at the bank of Lansingburgh, with intent to defraud Wendell. On the trial, Solomon Dean was offered as a witness for the peo-pie; but he admitting that he had not paid the note, was objected to by the defendant’s counsel as incompetent. The objection was overruled by the judges, and he was sworn and testified in the cause. Judgment was suspended in the court below, for the purpose of…
1Opinion of the Court
Curia, per
Savage, Ch. Justice.
There has been a difference upon the point presented by this case between the English and American decisions ; the former holding that the party whose name has been forged to an instrument, cannot be a witness against the offender; and the latter that he may. Although this court, in 1794, decided according to the English cases ; yet the reasoning of Kent, Ch. J. in The People v. Howell, has generally been considered by the profession as satisfactory ; and it has, as far as we can learn, been followed in practice, at the courts of oyer and terminer. Besides, if we…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- State v. A. W.Supreme Court of Vermont · 1801
- State v. BrunsonSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1791
3Cited by1 opinion
- United States v. Seattle-First National BankSupreme Court of the United States · 1944