Evidence Commons^™

Spontaneous Declarations (Res Gestae), Thomas P. Hardman

West Virginia Law Review

In a comparatively recent case in which counsel contended that certain extrajudicial assertions were inadmissible on the ground that they were not "a part of the res gestae," Judge Learned Hand dismissed the argument with the observation that res gestae "is a phrase which has been accountable for so much confusion that it had best be denied any place whatever in legal terminology." In somewhat similar vein the supreme court of California has said that "Definitions of res gestae are as numerous as prescriptions for the cure of rheumatism and generally about as useful." The appropriateness of these trenchant observations …