Attachment, for contempt, on the complaint of Sally A. Wright. An action in favor of the complainant against the defendant was referred by the court, and a hearing before the referee was had at Woodsville. The complainant’s son was a material witness in her behalf, and attended the hearing at her request.
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1883-06-05
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently June 1988
6 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.
¶1
The parties to an action, and their witnesses while in attendance upon the trial, and while going to or returning from the place of trial, are not liable to arrest. The privilege is not established for their benefit, but to protect the administration of justice. Without the free and unrestricted attendance of ■parties and witnesses, justice cannot be administered.
Ex parte
Cobbett, 7 E. & B. 958;
Newton
v.
Constable,
2 Q. B. 166. Persons who procure their arrest, or do anything else to obstruct the proceedings of a court, are guilty of contempt.
Cole
v.
Hawkins,
2 Str. 1094;
Garibaldo
v.
Cagnoni,
6 Mod. 90;
Bx parte King,
7
*671
Ves. 312;
Littler
v.
Thomson,
2 Beav. 129; Bac. Abr., Priv. B., 2; 1 Tidd Pr. (3d Am. ed) 196—198;
Regina
v. Onslow, 12 Cox C. C. 358;
Regina
v. Skipworth, 12 Cox C. C. 371;
Tenney's
Case, 23 N. H. 162;
Sturoc's
Case, 48 N. H. 428;
May
v. Shumway, 16 Gray 86;
Thompson's
Case, 122 Mass. 428;
In re
Healey, 53 Vt. 694;
Smith
v.
Jones,
76 Me. 138.
