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58 N.H. 73

State v. Shaw

Supreme Court of New Hampshire

Decided March 5, 1877

Supreme Court of New Hampshire · decided 1877-03-05

Indictment, against a druggist for selling spirituous liquor, on the 2d day of January, 1876, to John C. Sweat. Verdict, guilty. Sweat having testified to the sale, at about the time alleged, by the respondent’s clerk, the clerk, as a witness for the respondent, testified that he had not sold any liquor since the Reform Club was formed, in the preceding November.

Relies on State v. Bonney · State v. Roberts · State v. Colby

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-03-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently January 1939

10 state decisions

401877188018901900191019201930decided

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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Foster, J.

¶1 Evidence that a person, charged with an illegal sale of spirituous liquors, kept a hotel, had a bar, or that he actually kept liquors on his premises, is relevant to the issue. State v. Bonney, 39 N. H. 206; State v. Colby, 55 N. H. 72; State v. Roberts, 55 N. H. 485; Bishop on Stat. Crimes, s. 1048. Of the same character was the evidence of sales of liquor by the respondent’s clerk in November, preceding the day of the alleged sale, the precise day named in the indictment being immaterial. Where there is a question whether a particular act was done, the existence of any course of business according to which it naturally would have been done is a relevant fact. Steph. Dig. of the Law of Evid., art. 13; Hall v. Brown, post.

¶2 Whether the inquiry put to the respondent’s clerk upon cross-examination might be properly received for the purpose of testing the accuracy of the witness, or rejected, as matter of discretion, its admission is not an error of law. See Steph. Dig., art. 129; 1 Greenl. Ev., s. 446.

¶3 Judgment on the verdict.

Allen, J., did not sit.
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