Patterson v. Colebrook
Superior Court of New Hampshire
Case, to recover damages caused by the insufficiency and want of repairs in a highway in said town. Plea, the general issue. In September, 1850, Patterson, the plaintiff, was travel-ling in a carriage in the town of Colebrook, and, passing over a small bridge, was carried against a log about ten rods from it, and thrown out and much hurt.
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Case, to recover damages caused by the insufficiency and want of repairs in a highway in said town. Plea, the general issue. In September, 1850, Patterson, the plaintiff, was travel-ling in a carriage in the town of Colebrook, and, passing over a small bridge, was carried against a log about ten rods from it, and thrown out and much hurt. His evidence tended to show that' the bridge was old and rotten, that there was a large and dangerous hole in it, and had been for several months before, that the road beyond the bridge, and at the place of the injury, was narrow, ledgy, stony and rough, and…
1Opinion of the CourtEastman, J.
The ruling of the court, in rejecting a portion of the deposition of Owen, was correct. The evidence was so far matter of opinion as to be liable to the general objection that the opinions of the witnesses cannot ordinarily be received in evidence, unless they relate to matters of skill and science. Robertson v. Stark, 15 N. H. Rep. 109; Norman v. Wells, 17 Wend. 137; Hoitt v. Moulton, 1 Foster’s Rep. 586.
Instead of asking the witness what “ cause or occasion” he saw for the accident, or what obstruction the hole in the bridge presented to the passage of the carriage, questions, the answer to…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Robertson v. StarkSuperior Court of New Hampshire · 1844