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1 Conn. 49

Lewis v. Hawley

Supreme Court of Connecticut

Decided June 15, 1814

Supreme Court of Connecticut · decided 1814-06-15

IN ERROR. THIS was a petition brought by Lewis to the superior court, for a new trial of an action of slander, in which Hawley had recovered a verdict and judgment against him.(a) The petition was voluminous, detailing all the evidence exhibited by Hawley on the trial, alleging falsehood, mistake, fraud and surprise, and averring newly discovered and material evidence. To this petition there was a demurrer.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“A petition for a new trial on the ground of ... newly discovered evidence is an address to the sound discretion of the court.... These are to be tested by the discretion of the court, of which error is not predicable.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Jones v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1814-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently February 2018

3 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Brainard, J.

¶1A petition for a new trial on the ground of surprise and newly discovered evidence is an address to the sound discretion of the court. The court in fact are presumed to possess the whole of the testimony offered on the trial. They have a full view of the case as it appeared to them ; with which they are to compare the surprise and newly discovered evidence stated ; and, if called to it by demurrer, to judge of the nature and extent of the one, and of the importance and relevancy of the other. These are to be tested by the discretion of the court, of which error is not predicable.

¶2Our statute(a) on the subject directs the courts for mispleading, or discovery of new evidence, or other cause, to grant new trials as shall by them be judged reasonable, and proper, submitting to and relying on the sound discretion of the court. This, in the present case, I am bound to presume, has been duly and properly exercised. I am, therefore, of opinion that in the judgment complained of there is nothing erroneous.

Ingersoll, J.

¶3gave no opinion, having been of counsel in the cause previous to his appointment to the bench.

The other Judges severally concurred in the opinion delivered by Judge Brainard.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

¶5 Tit. 6. c. 1. s. 13.

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