Reputation

The opinion generally entertained in regard to the character or condition of a person by those who know him or his family. The opinion generally entertained by those who may be supposed to be acquainted with a fact. In general, reputation is evidence to prove a man's reputation in society; a pedigree; 14 Camp. 416; 1 S. & S. 153; certain prescriptive or customary rights and obligations; matters of public notoriety. But as such evidence is in its own nature very w'eak, it must be supported, when it relates to the exercise of a right or privilege, by proof of acts of enjoyment of such right or privilege within the period of living memory; 1 Maule & S. 679; 5 Term 32. Afterwards, evidence of reputation may be given. Evidence of the reputation of a man for truth and veracity in the neighborhood of his home is equally competent to affect his credibility as a witness, whether it is founded upon a dispassionate judgment, or upon warm admiration for habitual truthfulness or natural indignation at habitual falsehood, and whether his neighbors are virtuous or immoral in their be general, and not particular; they must be free from suspicion; 1 Stark. Ev. 54. An existing reputation is a fact to which any one may testify who knows it; he knows it because he hears it, and what he hears constitutes the reputation; Bathrick v. Post & Tribune Co., 50 Mich. 642, 16 N. W. 172, 45 Am. Rep. 63. Formerly, and until the middle of this century, witnesses in England could testify as to their personal knowledge and opinion of a defendant’s or witness’s character. At present the question to be asked is whether the witness knows the witness’s reputation, what it is, and whether, from such knowledge, he would believe him on oath.

Tayl. Ev. § 1324.

In America, as to the character of a defendant, reputation is in most states made the exclusive mode of proof. See an interesting article by Prof. John H. Wigmore, in 32 Am. L. Rev. 713. Injuries to a man’s reputation by circulating false accounts in relation thereto are remediable by action and by indictment. See Libel; Slander; Character.