Gett v. Isaacson

• Decision Date: 01 March 1923
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: GETT v. ISAACSON.

120 A. 156

98 Conn. 539

GETT v. ISAACSON.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

March 1, 1923

Appeal from Superior Court, Hartford County; L. P. Waldo Marvin Judge.

Action by Nellie Gett against Edward A. Isaacson. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Error, and new trial ordered.

Josiah H. Peck and Carlyle C. Thomson, both of Hartford, for appellant.

Percy S. Bryant and Richard H. Deming, both of Hartford, for appellee.

CURTIS, J.

This is an action in two counts; the first to recover damages for a breach of promise to marry, and the second to recover for work and labor done at the defendant's request. The defendant in his appeal sets forth eight reasons of appeal. In his argument and on his brief he has pursued only the second, fourth, seventh, and eighth reasons.

The seventh and eighth reasons relate to the failure of the court in its charge to refer to or comment upon the conflicting evidence as to the plaintiff's relations with other men during the claimed existence of the defendant's promise to marry her.

It it is not the duty of the court in its charge to refer to or comment upon each fact or each subject as to which evidence has been offered. It must be left ordinarily to the sound discretion of the court to determine to what extent, if at all, it will refer to or comment upon purely evidential facts.

The defendant made no request to charge as to such evidential facts, and without such request a failure to refer to or comment upon them could not ordinarily constitute an abuse of discretion and an error on the part of the court.

The seventh and eighth reasons of appeal are not well taken.

In her complaint, the plaintiff, after alleging a breach of promise to marry her by the defendant, alleged as follows:

" The plaintiff, confiding in said promise and believing the representations of the defendant that he loved her and intended to marry her, yielded to his solicitations and permitted him to have sexual intercourse with her on or about April 1, 1914, and subsequent thereto.

By reason of said sexual intercourse she became pregnant, and on April 2, 1915, was delivered of a male child now living."

Upon the trial she offered evidence in support of these allegations and tending to prove that on February 26, 1915 the defendant went with the plaintiff to Grace Hospital in New Haven, and told her to give the hospital authorities a fictitious name and to tell them that she had been married and to notify him when her baby was born, all of which she did, giving the name of Helen Koransky; and that at defendant's suggestion she told the hospital authorities that the father of the child was John Koransky, a painter living in Hartford, to whom she was married, and that he was dead, and on April 2, 1915, the plaintiff was delivered of a boy who was still living at the time of the trial.

Upon the trial the defendant offered in evidence a certified copy of the birth record found in the records of the registrar of births, marriages, and deaths of New Haven, a copy of which is set forth in the margin.^[1]

This certified copy was offered as evidence tending to prove the paternity of the child mentioned therein.

To the admission of the certified copy for that purpose the plaintiff objected, and the court sustained the objection admitting the copy for the limited purpose of tending to prove the date of birth, identity of the mother, color and sex of the child. To this ruling the defendant excepted.

The Public Acts of 1905, c. 11, in force in 1915 (now General Statutes 1918, § 324), provide as follows:

" Every registrar of births, marriages, and deaths shall ascertain as accurately as he can all marriages and deaths occurring in his town; and all births upon the affidavit of the father or mother, and record the same in a book or books kept by him for that purpose, in such form and with such particulars as shall be prescribed by the state board of health. * * * When any birth or death shall happen of which no certificate shall be returned to him, he shall obtain the information required by law respecting such birth or death."

Also the Public Acts of 1907, c. 91, in force in 1915 at the date of the claimed birth of the child, provided that--

" Every physician, * * * who shall have professional charge of the mother at the birth of any child * * * shall * * * furnish the registrar of the town wherein such birth may have taken place a certificate, signed by such physician * * * and stating, from the best information which can be obtained, the name, if such child have a name, the place and date of birth, the sex, the name of the father, the maiden name of the mother, the age, color, residence, and birthplace of each of the parents, the occupation of the father, the number of the child, and the name and address of the medical attendant."

This act provides an additional source of information for the registrar.

The registrar of births, marriages, and deaths of New Haven recorded a birth record of the plaintiff's child in the record book in New Haven in the terms of the certified copy of the birth record offered in evidence.

The registrar is a public officer and in...