Green v. Long

Decided August 15, 1804

New York Supreme Court · decided 1804-08-15

This was an action of slander for saying of the plaintiff “you have perjured yourself.” The plea not guilty, with a notice subjoined that it would be proved on the trial, that the… Held: agreeably to law, upon the defendant, as a captain, for disobedience of orders. The notice then set forth to what the plaintiff testified, that it was material to the charge in issue, and was not the truth. The cause came on before Mr. Justice Kent, at the Washington circuit, in 1803.

Decided 1804-08-15

Sent, Ch. J.

¶1I am clear I was wrong at nisi jprius. It "x'ought to have been intended and presumed, that everything took place before a court of competent jurisdiction. The onus lay on the defendant to show that it was otherwise. As to the argument that there might not have been any such court as that in which the perjury was alleged to have been committed, it would, in my opinion, have been an aggravation of the offence. The assertion might have had all the effects of a charge of *92perjury before a competent jurisdiction: I am therefore for granting a new trial, with costs to abide the event of the suit.(a)

¶2New trial granted.

¶3 See Hopkins v. Beedle, I Caines’ Rep. 348, n.’(a.)