Commonwealth v. Harwood

Decided September 15, 1855

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1855-09-15

Indictment for keeping a house of ill fame in Springfield. At the trial in the court of common pleas, a witness for the Commonwealth testified that he watched the house one night, and saw some men come out of it, and the men held conversation together outside the house, immediately upon coming out, neither the defendant nor any of the inmates of the house being present. The district attorney asked the witness to relate the conversation. The defendant objected.

Decided 1855-09-15

By the Court.

¶1The conversation given in evidence took place out of the house, and not within the presence or knowledge of the defendant or of any of his family. He cannot therefore be held responsible for it. Improper conduct or conversation outside of the house has no legal tendency to show that there had been any such conduct or conversation within its walls. The conversation was so purely res inter alios, and the admission of such evidence would be so dangerous, that the ;curt are of opinion that it should not have been admitted.

¶2Exceptions sustained.