15 A.2d 252 | N.H. | 1940
As early as 1827 Chief Justice Richardson speaking for this court announced it was well settled as a rule of policy in this state that "jurors are not to be received to testify to the motives *153
and inducements on which they may have joined in a verdict . . . . Nor can the affidavits of all the jurors be received to correct a mistake in the verdict." Tyler v. Stevens,
A different question is presented by the motions in so far as they request that the jury be recalled and interrogated concerning their conduct while considering the case. "If the affidavits offered by the plaintiff, [the affidavits under consideration in the case from which this quotation is taken were those of a juror and of one to whom the juror had confided], . . . to sustain his motion were not competent testimony, as it seems they were not, . . . it appears . . . that the law furnished other adequate means for ascertaining whether the question submitted to the jury was misconstrued by them and whether their verdict was rendered erroneous thereby. The court could have called the jury together and inquired of them how they construed the question." Winslow v. Smith,
This rule appears to have been first announced in this state in 1842 in the following language: "We are not disposed to doubt that the court may inquire of the jury touching their verdict and the grounds upon which they proceeded, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the case has been properly tried." Walker v. Sawyer,
The foregoing authorities establish that neither party has "the legal right to bring the jurors . . . before the trial judge and have them orally examined," (Goodwin v. Blanchard,
The unofficial visit of one, or even of all, of the jurors to the scene of the event on trial before them is not misconduct of such a nature as to require an order for a new trial as a matter of law even in a capital case (Palmer v. State,
The evidence presented to the court that this juror also made experiments with the headlights of his car at the scene of the accident is far from conclusive. Counsel for the defendants with commendable candor admit that he denied having done any such thing, *156 but say only that he said he must have done so if another juror, (the only one found who would say that he heard anything about such an experiment), said that he had reported thereon.
The fact that during the trial another juror was given unsolicited information out of court by a friend as to an issue in dispute between the parties does not constitute misconduct sufficient to warrant an order for a new trial as a matter of law. State v. Ayer,
Furthermore "The matter in issue in a proceeding of this kind is whether the juror's misconduct produced the verdict, and not whether he misbehaved during the trial," (Blodgett v. Park,
From this lack of indication of any effect of the individual acts of misconduct upon the jury as a whole; from the fact that none of the alleged instances of misconduct on the part of any of the jurors are sufficient to warrant an order for a new trial as a matter of law; from the conflicting reports given by the jurors to counsel for the defendant and by the latter reported to the court; and from the likelihood that the jurors when interviewed informally after they had been discharged and had separated may have made ill-considered statements to counsel, we are of the opinion, in view of the policy of the law to discourage any discussion of cases by defeated counsel with jurors after trial, that the court below can not be found to have abused his discretion when he denied the defendants' motions to have the jury recalled and interrogated. In our opinion a contrary holding would constitute a serious encroachment by this court upon the discretionary powers of the trial court which would seriously hamper the latter in its administration of justice.
There only remains to be considered the defendants' allegation that the provisions of Public Laws chapter 339, section 25, had not been complied with. This statute reads as follows: "Jurors shall not be required to continue their deliberations without sleep and rest later than twelve o'clock in the evening. At that hour, or earlier, under such safeguards and conditions as the court may direct, they shall be afforded suitable opportunity for sleep and rest, at the expense of the county, for at least eight hours before again taking up their deliberations." It appears that the jury were told to cease their deliberations before midnight and that they did not again take up their consideration of the cases until more than eight hours later, *157
and it appears that they knew that sleeping accommodations were provided for their use and available to them. These facts distinguish the case at bar from the case of Kellogg v. Eastman,
Exceptions overruled.
ALLEN, C. J., dissented: the others concurred.