Commonwealth v. Rogers
| Decision Date | 27 November 1883 |
| Citation | 136 Mass. 158 |
| Parties | Commonwealth v. George A. Rogers |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Suffolk. Indictment for an assault and battery.
At the trial in the Superior Court, before Knowlton, J., one Michael McEleheny testified as a witness for the government. The defendant offered John B. Hebron as a witness, who testified as follows: "I have known Michael McEleheny for four or five years: I know people who know him." Upon being asked if he knew his general reputation for truth and veracity, he answered that all he knew of his reputation for truth and veracity was what he heard said on two occasions once in a horse-car, the other time in a barber-shop, where there were present five or six persons. The defendant then asked the witness what McEleheny's reputation was for truth and veracity. The judge excluded the question.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty; and the defendant alleged exceptions.
Exceptions overruled.
J. F Dore, for the defendant.
E. J. Sherman, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.
Devens, J. C. Allen & Holmes, JJ., absent.
The mere fact that the witness Hebron had been acquainted with McEleheny for four or five years, and also with people who knew him, did not necessarily qualify him to testify as to McEleheny's general reputation for truth and veracity, as such acquaintance with him or his associates might have been of the slightest description. It was entirely within the discretion of the presiding judge to ask, or permit to be asked, as a preliminary question, if he deemed the interests of justice required it, whether the witness knew the general reputation of McEleheny in this respect. Wetherbee v. Norris, 103 Mass. 565. It was competent thus to ascertain whether the witness had any knowledge of the general reputation of the impeached witness, but not to inquire into the means or extent of such knowledge, with a view of determining whether the court would then permit him to testify, which was the case in Bates v. Barber, 4 Cush. 107. The witness did not answer the question directly, but replied that all he knew of McEleheny's reputation "was what he had heard said on two occasions," which he specified. When therefore the defendant afterwards asked him "what McEleheny's reputation was for truth and veracity," it was simply asking him what he had heard said on the two occasions referred to, for his knowledge was, he stated, limited...
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Commonwealth v. Boris
... ... admitted that he had never heard his reputation discussed. He ... was not qualified to testify to a fact of which he had no ... knowledge. Commonwealth v. Lawler, 12 Allen, 585. Walker ... v. Moors, 122 Mass. 501 ... Commonwealth v ... Rogers, 136 Mass. 158 ... Commonwealth v. Porter, ... 237 Mass. 1 ... Clark v. Eastern Massachusetts Street ... Railway, 254 Mass. 441 ... We do not decide that the good ... reputation of a man may not be shown by the absence of ... discussion of his character in the particular community in ... which he ... ...
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...to testify to a fact of which he had no knowledge. Commonwealth v. Lawler, 12 Allen 585;Walker v. Moors, 122 Mass. 501;Commonwealth v. Rogers, 136 Mass. 158;Commonwealth v. Porter, 237 Mass. 1, 129 N.E. 298;Clark v. Eastern Massachuetts Street Railway, 254 Mass. 441, 150 N.E. 184. We do not......
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...503, 506, 105 N. E. 378, 379, nor by what the impeaching witness may have heard said on two occasions which he specifies, Commonwealth v. Rogers, 136 Mass. 158. A stranger sent by a party to the neighborhood of the complainant to investigate her character is not permitted to testify as to t......
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