2 Duer 310 | The Superior Court of New York City | 1853
This was an action for assault and battery, tried before one of the justices of this court and a jury in the spring of 1852, and a verdict rendered in favor of the plaintiff for $2500. A motion is now made on the part of the defendant, to set aside the judgment entered on the ground that the judge had erred in refusing the defendant permission to read the pleadings to the jury, and had excluded the evidence offered in mitigation of damages.
The evidence, which the defendant offered in mitigation of damages, and which was excluded by the judge, was not admissible. Whatever were the real or fancied causes of provocation, and which were offered to be proved, if they existed, they were known to the defendant a long time prior to the assault. They were not of recent occurrence, had not just come to the knowledge of the defendant, and especially did not happen at
In the leading case in this state, that of Lee v. Woolsey, 19 John. 319, Chief Justice Spencer remarked, “It appears to me neither,to comport with sound policy nor law to allow an inquiry into antecedent facts in such a case as this, unless they are fairly to be considered as parts of one and the same transaction. A contrary course would greatly encourage breaches of the peace, personal rencounters, and every species of brutal force, and would tend to uncivilize the community.” The rule as first laid down in tMs country, so far as we find in Avery v. Bay, prevails, with scarcely an exception, if indeed there is any, in all the states of this Union, and its justness and policy have been dwelt upon, and favorably considered, in a large number of cases. It is the established rule in this state, and has been followed and recognised in several cases decided since that of Lee v. Woolsey. We see no reason in this case to depart from it. There were some other minor questions raised, but which were not pressed at the argument, and which were of little moment. We think them correctly determined at the trial.
The judgment appealed from must be affirmed.