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138 A.D. 680

McKane v. Howard

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · decided 1910-05-04

Appeal by the defendant, Leslie Howard, from a judgment of the Supreme Gourt in favor of the plaintiff, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Franklin on the 12th day of April, 1909, upon the verdict of a jury for $3,000, and also from an order entered in said clerk’s office on the 10th day of April, 1909,. denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial made upon the minutes.

Relies on Jones v. Layman · Dent v. Pickens · Sprague v. Craig

Decided 1910-05-04

Smith, P. J.

¶1(concurring):

¶2I agree with Mr. Justice Kellogg in his reasons assigned for the affirmance of this judgment, and I go one step further. In my *682opinion the evidence of the plaintiff’s good character was admissible, irrespective of any allegation in the complaint, from the time that the defendant assailed her character by specific acts- of immorality on her part. In Smith v. Hall (69 Conn. 651) the head note in part, reads : In an action for breach of promise of marriage the character of the plaintiff for chastity, when attacked, can always be sustained by evidence of reputation.” Upon this question the opin-. ion reads: The plaintiff was permitted, against the defendant’s objection, to offer evidence of her good character and reputation for chastity, in rebuttal. In his answer the defendant alleged that the plaintiff was a person of immoral character and habits and had been the keeper óf a bed-house; and he introduced evidence in support of these allegations which directly attacked the reputation of the plaintiff for chastity. Under these circumstances the ruling was correct. In. cases of this kind the character of the plaintiff for chastity, when' attacked, can always be sustained by evidence of reputation. (Dent v. Pickens, 34 W. Va. 240; Sprague v. Craig, 51 Ill. 288; Jones v. Layman, 123 Ind. 569; Haymond v. Saucer, 84 id. 3.) ” The rule, as here stated, seems to me salutary. The plaintiff thus attacked should have the right to sustain her denial by evidence of good character. She cannot bring proof to rebut specific instances, and. without the right to prove her general reputation for chastity in defense of such a charge she is at the mercy of án unscrupulous defendant, who could easily produce false testimony of such acts of immorality.-

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