Collateral Facts
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
ertdence, are facts unconnected with the issue or matter in dispute. As no fair and reasonable inference can be drawn from such facts they are inadmissible in evidence, for at best they are useless, and may be mischievous because they tend to abstract the attention of the jury, and to mislead them.
Stark. Ev. h. t.; 2 Bi. Rep. 1169; 1 Stark. Ev. 40.
It is frequently difficult to ascertain @ priori, whether a particular fact offered in evidence will or will not become material, and in such cases it is usual in practice for the court to give credit to assertion of counsel who tenders such evidence, that the facts will turn out to be material, but this is always within the sound discretion of the court. Whena witness is cross-examined as to collateral facts, the party cross-examinand he cannot, in general, contradict him by another witness.
Rose. Ev. 139.