res gestae

These declarations were connected with acts in furtherance of the objects of the voyage, and within the general scope of his authority as conductor of the enterprise... The testimony went to establish, that he endeavoured to engage Captain Coit to go as mate for the voyage then in progress, and his declarations were all made with reference to that object, and as persuasives to the undertaking. They were, therefore, in the strictest sense, a part of the res gestae

The facts surrounding or accompanying a transaction which is the subject of legal proceedings. The phrase is generally used in the law of evidence; the rule being that evidence of words or acts may be.admissible (notwithstanding the rule against derivative evidence) on the ground that they are part of the res gestae, provided that the act they accompanied is in itself admissible in evidence, and that they reflect light upon or qualify that act. Thus, the declaration of a railroad engineer as to the cause of an accident, made immediately thereafter, was held admissible in an action against the railroad company. 55 Pa. St. 396. And in criminal cases, remarks of defendant (25 Grat. [Va.] 921), or by the injured person (10 Mo. App. Ill; 34 Iowa, 131), are admissible if connected with the transaction, and connected with both in point of time and causal connection; but remarks of persons not in some manner connected with the transaction are inadmissible (99 Mass. 438). No inflexible rule can be laid down as to the necessary proximity in point of time be-, tween the declaration arid the act under investigation. See 9 Tex. App. 440; Id. 619; 71 Ga. 128. Perhaps the most extreme holding is that declarations of a deceased some hours before the homicide, that she was to meet defendant on business that evening, were held admissiblfe as part of the res gestae in connection with evidence that she went out that evening to meet some one. 62 Minn. 474.

Things done; transactions; essential circumstances surrounding the subject. The circumstances, facts, and declarations which grow out of the main fact, are contemporaneous with it, and serve to illustrate its character. See Stirling v. Buckingham, 46 Conn. 464; Ft. Smith Oil Co., v. Slover, 58 Aria 168, 24 S. W. 106; State v. Prater, 52 W. Va. 132, 43 S. E. 230; Davids v. People, 192 111. 176, 61 N. E. 537; Hall v. State, 48 Ga. 607; Railway Co., v. Moore, 24 Tex. Civ. App. 489, 59 S. W. 282.

Defined under Res in Black's Law Dictionary.