Evidence Commons^™

Presumptions In A One-Rule World, Alfred L. Gausewitz

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the 54 years since Thayer wrote the first excerpt, an enormous amount of excellent scholarship has been devoted to presumptions. Yet confusion persists. It may not be presumptuous, therefore, to suggest some causes of confusion more radical than those mentioned by Professor Morgan in the second excerpt quoted above. This is not to say that he has not stated them. In fact he has painstakingly pointed out the fundamental difficulties in a number of articles written both before and after he became draftsman of the Model Code. As draftsman he has had to carry a burden of expounding it …

Federal Civil Procedure Rule 43(A): A Freak Among The Rules, Thomas F. Green Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Rule 43(a) is an anomaly in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.'Attorney General Cummings, the chief sponsor of the enabling act, apparently did not contemplate the inclusion of any rule dealing with the admissibility of evidence. The American Bar Association, which sponsored similar bills before Congress for years, laid much of the groundwork but abandoned the project prior to successful completion. A report of the Association's committee charged with the duty of "pushing" the then current version of the bill stated that the court rules were not to deal with evidence. The broadest expression in the bill which was enacted …

Constitutional Law-Fourth Amendment-Exclusion Of Contraband Evidence Obtained By An Illegal Search On Premises Not Owned By Defendant, Edgar A. Strause

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was in the unlawful possession of narcotics. Having been given a key by his two aunts to their hotel room with authority to use the room at will, defendant stored the narcotics there without the knowledge of the occupants. A federal officer entered the hotel room, searched the room, and seized the narcotics during the absence of the occupants, without a search warrant. The defendant was arrested the following day and claimed ownership of the seized narcotics. He was convicted in the District Court of the District of Columbia for violation of federal law, the court refusing to …

Evidence-Privilege-Confidential Communications Between Husband And Wife, James I. Huston

Michigan Law Review

Husband sued for divorce alleging that wife drank excessively and humiliated him in public by her conduct, and that she continually made false and profane accusations designed to make his life unbearable. As proof of the latter charge, plaintiff was allowed to introduce in evidence a wire recording of conversations between plaintiff and defendant in their bedroom. Plaintiff's son by a previous marriage had, by prearrangement with plaintiff, installed in their bedroom a microphone connected to a wire-recorder in the son's adjoining bedroom, with which recordings were made of four separate conversations between plaintiff and defendant. The recordings substantiated plaintiff's …

Evidence As A Problem In Communicating, Edward W. Cleary

Vanderbilt Law Review

The law of evidence is sagging to the point of collapse under its own weight. It has cracked visibly in the administrative sphere, and what saves it in the courts is probably a rather general ignorance of what is actually between the covers of Wigmore, plus the fact that lawyers and judges often seem to be downright ashamed to push the rules to their logical extremes. Evidence in action is, happily perhaps, somewhat different from evidence in books. Nevertheless, among people who are thoughtful about such things there is general agreement that something ought to be done.

Judicial Notice, Charles T. Mccormick

Vanderbilt Law Review

The traditional Anglo-American system of proof demands rigorous guaranties of accuracy, with its requirement of witnesses having first-hand knowledge, its mistrust of hearsay, however reliable, except for narrow exceptions, and its insistence upon original documents and their authentication by witnesses. These requirements have their roots in the contentious or adversary system, where the party and not the judge is responsible for gathering and presenting facts, and in the method of jury trial. But this strict though scientific insistence upon proving everything at first hand is, like jury-trial itself, enormously costly in time, energy and money. The principal effect of the …

Logical Or Legal Relevancy -- A Conflict In Theory, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Is there a rational theory which serves as a basis for determining the admissibility of circumstantial evidence?

Circumstantial evidence involves the offer in evidence of Fact A for the purpose of having the trier of fact (jury, judge, administrative agency or arbitrator) first believe that Fact A is true, and from it infer the existence or truth of Fact B. Fact B may be one of the ultimate questions of factor propositions raised by the pleadings, or it may be a more remote fact or proposition which when established, again forms the basis for a further inference in the chain …

Requisite Proof Of Basis For Expert Opinion, John M. Maguire, Jefferson E. Hahesy

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article is about the factual foundation of expert opinion evidence. It is tentative, not dogmatic or even confident. It proposes for further consideration by others our effort at more precise shaping of doctrines which have become familiar but remained vague. These doctrines have to do with the degree of stringency which is and ought to be exercised in applying ordinary rules of evidential competency to proof of propositions of fact underlying or related to formulation and announcement of experts' opinions in litigated cases.

Declarations Against Interest, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

"Declarations of a person, whether verbal or written, as to facts relevant to the matter of inquiry, are admissible in evidence, even as between third parties, where it appears: (1) That the declarant is dead; (2) that the declaration was against his pecuniary or proprietary interest; (3) that he had competent knowledge of the fact declared; (4) that he had no probable motive to falsify the fact declared." This, Mr. Justice Walker of North Carolina in 1906 stated to be the established rule.' What is its origin; for what reason is the evidence held to be admissible; to what extent …

Self-Crimination Privilege: "Links In The Chain", Judson F. Falknor

Vanderbilt Law Review

"According to their [the prosecution's] statement, a witness can never refuse to answer any question, unless that answer, unconnected with other testimony, would be sufficient to convict him of a crime. This would be rendering the rule almost perfectly worthless. Many links frequently compose that chain of testimony' which is necessary to convict any individual of a crime. It appears to the Court to be the true sense of the rule that no witness is compellable to furnish any one of them against himself...What testimony may be possessed, or is attainable, against any individual, the Court can never know. It …

Some Developments In The Law Concerning Confessions, William Wicker

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our system of administering criminal laws is predicated upon accusatorial rather than inquisitorial proceedings. To maintain inviolate the safeguards consonant with this principle, we have placed upon the State an ever-increasing burden in proving the commission of the crime charged. That this burden has begun to weigh heavily, and perhaps onerously, becomes unmistakably evident from a study of recent developments in the law of confessions.

Privileged Communications--Some Recent Developments, Lloyd S. Adams Jr., Mary E. Polk

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is the purpose of this Note to collect and discuss some of the newer decisions construing and applying the rules of evidence as to certain privileged communications, with a view toward indicating possible trends and developments or limitations, if any, in this field of the law of evidence. It is limited primarily to communications between husband and wife, attorney and client, physician and patient, and priest and penitent, with a short discussion of the so-called "novel privileges." The assumption is made that the reader is familiar with generally accepted definitions of the various privileges, as well as traditional limitations.' …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--RACIAL RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS--ALLOWANCE OF DAMAGES FOR BREACH

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CORPORATIONS--PARENT AND SUBSIDIARY--SUBSIDIARY AS INSTRUMENTALITY OF PARENT WHEN USED TO CARRY ON UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES

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EVIDENCE--ADMISSIBILITY OF CONFESSION--SCOPE OF REVIEW OF COURT-MARTIAL BY COURT OF MILITARY APPEALS

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EVIDENCE--CONFLICT OF LAWS--APPLICATION OF DOCTRINE OF RES IPSA LOQUITUR

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EVIDENCE--DUE PROCESS--USE IN STATE PROSECUTION OF EVIDENCE FORCIBLY OBTAINED BY STOMACH PUMP

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EVIDENCE--ENTRIES IN THE REGULAR COURSE OF BUSINESS--TEST FOR EXTENT OF ADMISSIBILITY UNDER FEDERAL JUDICIAL CODE

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EVIDENCE--HEARSAY--ADOPTION OF LIBERAL ADMISSION RULES OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS IN ANTITRUST COURT ACTION

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EVIDENCE--IMPEACHMENT OF ONE'S OWN WITNESS--USE OF PRIOR INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS

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Evidence-Admissibility Of Confessions In Federal Courts Under The Mcnabb Rule, Harry T. Baumann S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, after proper arraignment on a charge of as· sault, was questioned intermittently about and confessed to a murder. This confession, introduced at the trial in the District Court of Alaska, was instrumental in convicting the defendant of the graver charge. The court of appeals reversed because of a failure to file the murder complaint within a reasonable time. On certiorari, held, the confession, made after proper detention on a lesser charge, was legal and admissible if given freely; but case affirmed as modified on other grounds. United States v. Carignan, 342 U.S. 36, 72 S.Ct. 97 (1951).

Constitutional Law-Due Process Of Law-Admissibility Of Confessions Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Harold G. Christensen S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court announced in 1936 that under certain circumstances the admission of a confession into evidence by a state court could amount to a denial of due process as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Since that time there has been an increasing number of appeals seeking reversal of a conviction upon that ground and an expansion by the Court of the types of factual situations which will render a confession inadmissible. That this expansion reached its apex with the case of Watts v. Indiana and companion cases decided in 1949 appears probable in the light of a recent denial …

Evidence-The Use Of Blood Grouping Tests In Disputed Parentage Proceedings-A Scientific Basis For Discussion, Lewis R. Williams, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Much has been written concerning the validity of the so-called "blood-grouping tests" in bastardy and other legal proceedings. The general tenor of the writings is in favor of wider acceptance by the courts of the results of these tests. This comment is to be no exception. However, it is the purpose here to emphasize the scientific validity of the blood-grouping tests and to acquaint the reader with the theory upon which the tests rest. If lawyers and judges understand the scientific basis of the tests, a more intelligent decision upon the validity of any given result can be formed, and …

Evidence: Admissibility Of Uncommunicated Threats Of A Deceased Person--Griffin V. United States, Cecil Walden

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Testimonial Privilege And Competency In Indiana

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

-- Books Received --

Commercial Law, Cases on

By Robert Braucher

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1951. Pp. 709. $8.00

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Commercial Transactions, Cases and Materials, Temporary Edition

By Arthur E. Sutherland, Jr. and Bertram F. Willcox

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1951. Pp. 1251. $9.50

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Conflict of Laws, Cases and Materials, Third Edition

By Elliott E.Cheatham, Herbert F. Goodrich, Erwin N. Griswold and Willis L. M.Reese

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1951. Pp. 960. $9.00

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Constitution of Powers in a Secular Statte, A.

By Edward S. Corwin

Charlottesville: The Michie Co., 1951. Pp. 126

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Evidence, Cases …

Evidence-Privileged Communication-Extension Of The Privilege To Communication Involving Agents, C. J. Rice S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Within certain limitations, the law immunizes confidential communications made to an attorney, spouse or physician from compulsory disclosure at subsequent judicial proceedings. Frequently, as in the above hypothetical situations, the subject matter of a communication is voluntarily disclosed to a third person for transmittal to the ultimately intended recipient. The third person may be the agent of either of the primary parties. Does this disclosure remove it from the privileged classification, notwithstanding the fact that the parties may still have intended the information to be confidential? It is the purpose of this comment, first, to examine the extent to which …

Evidence, Thomas F. Green Jr.

Mercer Law Review

One of the paradoxes of the law is presented by the large number of decisions discussing evidence points and the small number which allow these points to affect the appellate court's judgment. A reversal solely on the basis of erroneous admission or exclusion seldom occurs. Perhaps this is as it should be. In this field the appellate courts lay down the principles for the trial courts to follow but usually do not interfere with the trial judge's application of those principles. Sometimes, however, the appellate courts are too ready to reverse. In Henderson v. State the charge was murder and …

Constitutional Law—Search And Seizure—Evidence Obtained During Search Suppressed, Mary K. Davey

Buffalo Law Review

Jeffers v. United States, 187 F. 2d 498 (D. C. Cir. 1950); aff'd. __ U. S. __, 20 U. S. L. Week 4011 (Nov. 13, 1951).

Burden Of Proof And Presumptions In Will Contests In Tennessee, Edmund M. Morgan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Burden of proof is a slippery phrase. It is used to describe the burden of producing evidence sufficient to justify a finding or the burden of persuading the trier to make a finding or both these burdens.' Thayer noted the confusion in the judicial opinions caused by this loose use of language. In his essay, in attempting to bring order into the subject, he stated first that the burden of persuasion is fixed by the pleadings or their equivalent at a stage of the proceedings preliminary to trial and second, that once fixed, it never shifts. These pronouncements have received …

Evidence-Admissibility In Negligence Action Of Evidence Of Prior Acts Of Negligence In Similar Situation [Dallas Ry. & Ter. Co. V. Farnsworth, Tex. 1950]

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evidence-Application Of Opinion Rule To Exclude Opinion Evidence Of Sanity Of Accused In Homocide Case [State V. Butner, Nev. 1950]

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

CONTRACTS--CONSIDERATION--AGREEMENT TO SUPPORT ILLEGITIMATE CHILD

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CONTRIBUTION--JOINT TORTFEASORS--REMEDY GRANTED

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CONTRIBUTION--JOINT TORTFEASORS--REMEDY GRANTED WHEN TORT CONSISTS OF NEGLIGENCE

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CREDITORS' RIGHTS--RECEIVERSHIP OF OPERATING BUSINESS--CHATTEL, MORTGAGEE ENTITLED TO FORECLOSURE RATHER THAN SMALLER MONTHLY PAYMENTS ORDERED BY COURT

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EVIDENCE--DEAD MAN STATUTE--OBSERVATION OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS NOT A "TRANSACTION" WITHIN MEANING OF STATUTE

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EVIDENCE--JUDICIAL NOTICE--TENETS OF COMMUNIST PARTY

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FEDERAL COURTS--HABEAS CORPUS IN EXTRADITION PROCEEDINGS--NECESSITY OF EXHAUSTING REMEDIES IN STATE COURTS

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IMPLIED WARRANTY--WARRANTY OF SEAWORTHINESS--WARRANTY WITHOUT A SALE

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NEGLIGENCE OF LANDOWNER--PERSON TAKING SHORTCUT THROUGH STORE--LICENSEE OR BUSINESS GUEST?

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RES JUDICATA--INDEMNITOR-INDEMNITEE RELATIONSHIP AS EXCEPTION TO REQUREMENT OF MUTUALITY--CREATION …

Evidence--The Opinion Rule As Applicable To Dying Declarations In West Virginia--Another View, J. H. M. Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evidence-Admissibility Of Uncommunicated Threats, Thomas Hartwell S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, following his killing of one Hunter as the outcome of a quarrel. The defendant had pleaded self-defense, contending that Hunter had appeared to threaten him. The defendant was the only witness to testify as to any aggression on the part of Hunter, while the four eyewitnesses to the killing all testified that the accused had attacked Hunter without warning and had fired upon Hunter's wife and child. Defendant's motion for new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence showing that Hunter had in his pocket an open knife, which …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

RECENT CASES

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--INTERSTATE COMMERCE--VALIDITY OF CARRIER REGULATION REQUIRING RACIAL SEGREGATION

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--POLITICAL QUESTIONS--GEORGIA COUNTY UNIT VOTE SYSTEM

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DIVORCE--ALIMONY IN DEFAULT DECREES--POWER OF COURT TOWARD ALIMONY IN ABSENCE OF PRAYER THEREFOR IN COMPLAINT

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EVIDENCE--PROOF OF CORPUS DELICTI--CORROBORATION OF DEFENDANT'S CONFESSION BY HIS OWN SPONTANEOUS STATEMENTS

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FEDERAL COURTS--VENUE--USE OF STATE NONRESIDENT MOTORIST STATUTE TO IMPLY WAIVER

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GIFT TAXES--TRANSFER MADE UNDER DIVORCE DECREE INCORPORATING PREDIVORCE PROPERTY SETTLEMENT--EFFECT OF PROVISION IN SETTLEMENT THAT IT WOULD BE BINDING REGARDLESS OF TERMS OF DIVORCE DECREE

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INSURANCE--NOTICE TO AGENT REPRESENTING TWO INSURERS--ESTOPPEL PREVENTING COMPANY SECONDARILY LIABLE FROM CLAIMING AGAINST COMPANY …

Res Ipsa Loquitur Vindicated, Louis L. Jaffe

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.