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1 Conn. 147

Skillenger v. Bolt

Supreme Court of Connecticut

Decided November 15, 1814

Supreme Court of Connecticut · decided 1814-11-15

THIS was an action of trover for a horse and carriage. The cause was tried at Danbury, September term 1814, before Reeve, Ch. J. and Edmond, J. On the trial on the issue of not guilty, it appeared that the defendant, as a sheriff’s deputy, plaintiff’s counsel described in the declaration, by direction of Thaddeus Betts, in a suit brought by him against one Wallace on a promissory note.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently March 1836

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1814-11-15

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Ingersoll, J.

¶1It is my opinion that the court did right in excluding the witness. It seems, the discharge was given to the witness in order to qualify him to testify in a cause, in which he was directly interested, and in which he was bound by every honest principle to indemnify the defendant. In such a case, though a discharge be given to the witness, it comes in a very questionable shape, even if nothing more appears than the discharge itself. But if immediately after it be given, and at the very time when it is produced before the court, the witness says he considers it as nothing, the inference must be, that it was a sham business, made up for the occasion ; and that it never was intended by the parties to the discharge, that it should exonerate the witness from *150liability to indemnify the defendant for taking the property as stated in the motion.

In this opinion the other Judges severally concurred.

¶2New trial not to be granted.

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