State v. Brittell

102 A. 1027, 92 Vt. 293, 1918 Vt. LEXIS 168
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedFebruary 27, 1918
StatusPublished

This text of 102 A. 1027 (State v. Brittell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Brittell, 102 A. 1027, 92 Vt. 293, 1918 Vt. LEXIS 168 (Vt. 1918).

Opinion

Miles, J.

This is an information charging the respondent with adultery. The case was tried by jury and a verdict was rendered against the respondent. After verdict and before judgment a motion in arrest was filed by the respondent, on the ground that the information contained no allegation that the parties to the alleged crime were not husband and wife.

In the case of State v. Edward Eaton, 92 Vt. 291, 102 Atl. 1025, handed down at the February Term of this Court, 1918, the jury, in the court below, found the respondent guilty of having committed adultery with the respondent in this ease; and in this case the jury have found the respondent guilty of having committed the crime of adultery with the said Eaton; and the question raised here is decided in the opinion handed down in that ease and that decision controls this case.

Judgment that there is no error in the proceedings below and that the respondent take nothing by her exceptions.

ON PETITION FOR NEW TRIAL

After the case was argued in Supreme Court the respondent brings her petition for a new trial, supporting the same by the affidavit of Hazel M. Brittell, daughter of the respondent, a girl fourteen years of age, who was a witness on the trial of the respondent in the court below, and supported also by affidavits of William Holmes, of Dora Holmes, wife of said William Holmes, of the respondent and of her attorneys.

[295]*295On the trial of the ease in county court, Hazel M. testified, among other things, in substance as follows: That some time in 1913 she went with her mother and a little brother to Hanover, New Hampshire; that her mother, for about two months, worked for Mrs. Atkins at Hanover, when Edward Eaton, the man with whom the respondent is charged with having committed adultery, came there, and her mother and little brother went with him to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and her mother and brother did not return until about a week after they went away; that upon her mother’s return the respondent took what goods she had at Atkins’ and went to Hartland, Vermont, she and her brother going there with her; that they went to the house of one Elton Briggs, and there commenced housekeeping, describing the house as follows: “Downstairs you go into the front door and you go right into the kitchen, turn to your right and go into the parlor, and from there go into the bedroom, and while you are in the kitchen you turn to your right and go right upstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs, about — as far as I can remember, they are right' across the hall from each other.”

The witness then testified that she occupied one of the rooms upstairs with her little brother and her mother occupied the other room with Eaton; that she knew that fact because her mother and Eaton always went in there together at night; that there was only one bed in the room; that they stayed at the Briggs house about two months, when they went to what she called the Daley house, near by and on the same street. The witness then described that house with particularity and stated the persons occupying the rooms on the second floor. She testified that the respondent and Eaton slept in the bedroom downstairs having only one bed in it; that she had been in that room when Eaton and the respondent were there in their night clothes; that the family stayed at the Daley house about a year; that the respondent left there suddenly with the witness and her brother and they went from there to Ticonderoga; that Eaton remained behind to pack and ship the goods which later came to Ticonderoga; that Eaton came there later and occupied a bedroom with the respondent; that when they lived at the Daley house she had seen the respondent and Eaton in bed together.

On cross examination the witness testified that she and her brother were supported by the respondent and Eaton, when -at Hánover and the year following; that Eaton stayed with them, [296]*296worked at the mill and bought the “stuff” for the house and paid nothing for his board; that when at the Briggs house and when they got there the respondent called Eaton her husband and Eaton introduced her as his wife, and that she and her brother called him papa and that Eaton spoke of her and her brother as the children, and at the Briggs house they all lived together as one family and that she tried to make them think that Eaton was her father, and that she continue'd to do so as long as they lived in Hartland.

The material statement in the affidavit of the respondent attached to the petition is a denial of the testimony of Hazel M., that the respondent and Eaton occupied the same room and bed when she was living in North Hartland, Vermont. The material statements in the affidavit of Hazel M. Brittell are, that on the trial of the respondent in county court she was persuaded by her father, William Brittell, and her uncle Hayes Brittell, to testify that she had seen her mother in bed with Mr. Edward Eaton; that that testimony was not true; that while living with them at North Hartland she had no suspicion that anything was wrong in the conduct of her mother toward Eaton and that she did not then and she does not at the present time believe them to be guilty of adultery; that it was because of the influence of her father and uncle Hayes that induced her to testify against her mother in county court as she did testify and that she made the affidavit freely and voluntarily and without influence, either by love or fear, but to do what was right and to undo the wrong that she had done; that she and her mother slept together during all the time they lived at the Daley and Briggs houses. The affidavit of William W. Holmes and his wife, Dora Holmes, are substantially the same, that Hazel M. told them, after the trial and conviction of the respondent, that she was persuaded at the time of the trial by her father and others to testify falsely and that she never knew of anything wrong between her mother and Eaton, and that she believed the respondent to be innocent of the crime of adultery; that she told this to them of her,, own free will and accord. The affidavits of the attorneys for the respondent were with respect to the diligence which they used in preparing the case for trial and that the facts stated in the affidavits were unknown to them on the trial in county court. The affidavit of the respondent attached to the petition is practically a reiteration of her testimony on the trial in county court.

[297]*297The petition, strictly speaking, is not a petition for newly discovered evidence; bnt is a petition for a new trial because of a judgment obtained by false testimony, and the evidence by which the petitioner seeks to obtain a new trial is simply impeaching testimony. In State v. Fogg, 74 Vt. 62, 52 Atl. 272, this Court say: “It is a general rule that, when the new evidence only tends to discredit or impeach an opposing.witness, it will not avail as a ground for a new trial, especially if this evidence is directly denied by the witness sought to be impeached." Further along in the opinion it is said: “An examination of many cases shows that the general rule is subject to exceptions, and is in the control of the court, which will not grant a new trial unless it is reasonably certain that injustice has been done and that the result of a new trial will be different."

This case, we think, lays down the true rule in cases of this character, and the inquiry here: Do the affidavits make it “reasonably certain that injustice has been done and that the result of a new trial will be different?”

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Related

State v. Fogg
52 A. 272 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1901)
State v. Eaton
102 A. 1025 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
102 A. 1027, 92 Vt. 293, 1918 Vt. LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-brittell-vt-1918.