¶1(dissenting) : In the dissenting opinion of Brother Montgomery and myself, in State v. Ostwalt, 118 N. C., 1217, we pointed out many of the inconveniences and inconsistencies which would follow the departure from the long-settled legislative and judicial recognition of bastardy as a police regulation and therefore a quasi civil proceeding. The present adds an additional instance to those cited by us. It may be that on thus being called to the attention of the law making power, the evil may be remedied by unequivocal legislation. It is no benefit to add bastardy to the criminal law, when there exists already a far more efficient criminal proceeding by an indictment for fornication and adultery, and, besides, by giving to bastardy proceedings the technical advantages conferred on those put on trial for crime, it has been rendered utterly inefficient for the purposes for which it was really intended, and used for so long a period, of making the father support the child and protect the county from liability therefor.
119 N.C. 784
25 S.E 783
State v. . Mitchell
Supreme Court of North Carolina
Decided September 5, 1896
Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1896-09-05
The defendant was arrested and brought before a justice of the peace upon the charge of bastardy. He entered the plea of not guilty, and, offering no evidence, upon the affidavit or complaint, he was adjudged to be the father of the child, and judgment was entered against him accordingly. He appealed to the superior court of Wilson county, where, at June Term, 1896, a jury was empaneled.
Cited in Black's (1910)’s definition of “Evidence” · Black's (1910)’s definition of “Presumptive evidence”
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1896-09-05
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently October 1970
1 federal appellate · 12 state decisions
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.
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