Notto v. Atlantic City Railroad Company

• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: SWAYZE, J.
• Citation: Notto v. Atlantic City Railroad Company, 69 A. 968, 75 N.J.L. 826 (N.J. 1908)
• Decision Date: 15 June 1908
• Parties: ROSARIO NOTTO, ADMINISTRATOR, DEFENDANT IN ERROR, v. ATLANTIC CITY RAILROAD COMPANY, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR

69 A. 968

75 N.J.L. 826

NOTTO

v. ATLANTIC CITY R. CO.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

June 15, 1908.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error to Supreme Court.

Action by Rosario Notto against the Atlantic City Railroad Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.

Thompson & Cole, for plaintiff in error. Andrew J. King and Carrow & Kraft, for defendant in error.

SWAYZE, J. The only assignment of error that we think we need consider is that which challenges the admission in evidence of volume 20 of the American & English Encyclopaedia of Law to prove the Carlisle Mortality Tables.

That mortality tables are admissible in a proper case has been decided by this court. Camden & Atlantic R. R. Co. v. Williams, 61 N. J. Law, 646, 40 Atl. 634. We there said that the authenticity of the paper produced as the table should be established by proof satisfactory to the court, as by the testimony of a witness familiar with it and with its use, and that its office and use should be explained by a competent witness.

The only proof in this case was by the testimony of one of the counsel for the plaintiff, who produced the volume of the Encyclopaedia and testified that the tables represented the reasonable expectancy of life as shown from the experience gathered by insurance companies in America and England, and was known as the "Carlisle Table." Upon cross-examination he said he knew nothing other than what he saw in the book, and had not compared the table there given with a table recognized and established as the Carlisle Table. There was no preliminary proof as to his knowledge or use of the Carlisle Table, and we cannot assume that a lawyer is necessarily competent to testify as to the accuracy of a mortality...