Dalton v. Dregge

• Decision Date: 12 March 1894
• Citation: 99 Mich. 250,58 N.W. 57
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: DALTON v. DREGGE.

58 N.W. 57

99 Mich. 250

DALTON v. DREGGE.

Supreme Court of Michigan

March 12, 1894

Error to circuit court, Kent county; Allen C. Adsit, Judge.

Action by John Dalton against John Dregge. There was judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.

Wesselius Corbitt & Ewing, for appellant.

Smiley Smith & Stevens, for appellee.

GRANT J.

This is an action for criminal conversation, in which the plaintiff had verdict and judgment. The principal question is raised upon the competency of the testimony of two of plaintiff's children to a conversation between their father and mother, in which the mother admitted that she was with the defendant in a room at a hotel two hours. This admission was made in reply to a charge from the husband that she had spent the entire night with the defendant there. It is unnecessary to give the entire conversation, the tendency of which was to show that the wife had become estranged from the husband, that their amicable relations were broken up the effect upon him, and also the admission of the wife, from which criminality might be inferred. Certain letters, written by Mrs. Dalton to the defendant, were also introduced together with testimony tending to show that he had received them. The court admitted both the conversation and the letters to affect the question of damages. In this regard the court instructed the jury as follows: "Certain letters and statements, said to have been written and made by Mrs. Dalton, have been admitted in evidence. I charge you that the letters offered in evidence, said to have been written by her, must be regarded only with reference to establishing the condition of the family relations of the plaintiff and his wife; and, further, that you have no right to consider them in any manner as evidence of a criminal act having taken place between the defendant and the plaintiff's wife, unless it has been established that they were received by him, and not only received by him, but read by him, and acted upon by him, for the purpose of having criminal intercourse with the plaintiff's wife. The letters were not admitted in evidence as showing, or tending to show, or in any manner tending to affect, the matters and things charged in the plaintiff's declaration, except to show the state of feeling existing between the plaintiff and his wife. The extent of the damages to be awarded, if any, depends upon the previous relations of the husband and wife. If they were cordial and affectionate, his injury is greater than it would be if the contrary appears. It is for this only that her letters and statements have been admitted in this case, and you should consider them only upon this point. They go only to the measure of damages, and should be considered only in that connection." If the letters were admissible for the purpose stated, they could not be excluded because they tended to prove a fact which was inadmissible. People v. Doyle, 21 Mich. 221; Cook v. Perry, 43 Mich. 623, 5 N.W. 1054. It is the duty of the court to carefully caution the jury as to the purpose for which such testimony is admitted. When this is done, the jury...