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83 N.C. 613

State v. . Parish

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided June 5, 1880

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1880-06-05

PROCEEDING- in Bastardy, tried At Spring Term,'1880, of .Johnston Superior Court, before Eure, J. Upon the trial of the issue the mother of the ehild was introduced as .a witness ifor the .-state and testified as to .the paternity of the-child and the- time when it was begotten by the defendant. She was- asked if she had not been before-criminally intimate with several men whose names were mentioned, and especially with one Tom.

Decided 1880-06-05

Smith, C. J.

¶1 We sustain the correctness of the ruling of the court. Such testimony by itself and unconnected with evidence of the defendant’s non-intercourse during the interval necessary to his being the father, or other fact tending to disprove the charge, was held to be insufficient to-overcome the statutory presumption, and by itself incompetent when offered for that purpose, in the case- of the State v. Bennett, 75 N. C., 305, and State v. Britt, 78 N. C., 439, and when offered to impeach the credit of the witness, the matter of the enquiry was held to be collateral and her answer conclusive. State v. Patterson, 74 N. C., 157.

¶2 The jurisdiction iu bastardy proceedings is vested by a recent statute (acts 1879, ch. 92,)) exclusively in a justice of the peace, except as to such as were pending at the time of its passage in the superior, criminal, or inferior courts as in the present case.

¶3 There is no error and this will be certified to the court, below.

¶4 Per Curiam;. No error.

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