People v. Fox

• Decision Date: 15 October 1872
• Citation: 25 Mich. 492
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: The People v. Mathew M. Fox

25 Mich. 492

The People v. Mathew M. Fox

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 15, 1872

Heard October 9, 1872

Exceptions from Branch Circuit.

Exceptions sustained, and judgment arrested.

Dwight May, Attorney-general, for the People.

E. G Parsons and C. A.C Stacy, for the defendant.

OPINION

Cooley, J.

In this case the defendant is informed against, for that, "on the 19th day of April, 1870, at the court house in the city of Coldwater, in said county, before the Honorable Charles Upson, then being circuit judge of the fifteenth judicial district of this State, a certain issue before then duly joined in the said court, between Romina Reed and Charles Reed, by Harriet M. Reed, their next friend, and Mathew M. Fox and Ephraim J. Paddock, in a certain plea of assumpsit, wherein the said Romina Reed and Charles Reed, by their next friend, were plaintiffs, and the said Mathew M. Fox and Ephraim J. Paddock were defendants, was then and there pending and untried, and then and there before the court as aforesaid, at the time aforesaid, the said defendants, Mathew M. Fox and Ephraim J. Paddock, by their attorney, Charles B. Pratt, moved the court to amend the plea before that time in said cause filed, and upon the hearing of said motion it became and was a material question, whether the said Ephraim J. Paddock signed or subscribed his name to a certain promissory note described in plaintiff's declaration in said cause filed-- said note bearing date June 30, 1866, made for three hundred dollars, payable to the heirs of the late Thomas Reed, Charles and Romina Reed, and purporting to be signed by M. M. Fox and E. J. Paddock--and that on the aforesaid nineteenth day of April, A. D. 1870, while said motion was pending as aforesaid, the said Mathew M. Fox came before Elon G. Parsons, a notary public in and for the city of Coldwater in said county of Branch, then and there having sufficient and competent authority to administer the oath to the said Mathew M. Fox in this behalf, and was then and there by the said Elon G. Parsons duly sworn, and falsely, wickedly, willfully, and maliciously took his corporal oath that the contents of a certain written affidavit by said Mathew M. Fox then and there subscribed, were true; said affidavit being in the words and figures following, that is to say:

"'STATE OF MICHIGAN.

"'The Circuit Court for the County of Branch.

"'Mathew M. Fox and Ephraim J. Paddock, ads."' Romina Reed and Charles Reed, by Harriet Reed, their next friend.

"'Branch County, ss.

"'Mathew M. Fox, one of the above named defendants, being duly sworn, deposeth and says: That he gave the note set forth in the plaintiff's declaration in this suit, and signed the same with his own signature; that said note was not signed by Ephraim J. Paddock, the other defendant, to his knowledge; that he, deponent, paid interest on said note yearly since the same was given, and at each time when he so paid the interest, he saw said note, and said Paddock's name was not upon said note at any time when he so paid interest on the same, and the first time deponent had any knowledge that said Paddock's name was on said note, was on the 28th day of February, 1870.

"'Deponent further says, that said note was given by deponent for money loaned by him, and that said Paddock had no interest in the same, and deponent never asked said Paddock to sign the same, and was not signed by him, said Paddock, to deponent's knowledge.

"'(Signed) M. M. Fox.

'"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 19th day of April, 1870.

"'(Signed) E. G. Parsons.'

"Whereas in truth and in fact, the said ...