{
  "id": 8695266,
  "name": "JESSE HILL v. JOHN SPRINKLE and another",
  "name_abbreviation": "Hill v. Sprinkle",
  "decision_date": "1877-01",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "353",
  "last_page": "355",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "76 N.C. 353"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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    "simhash": "1:2e8bc5215794e657",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:21:57.000998+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "JESSE HILL v. JOHN SPRINKLE and another."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Bynum, J.\nUpon the trial, the defendant was introduced as a witness in his own behalf and his testimony was contradicted by one Lehman, a witness and former agent of\" the plaintiff.\nThe counsel of the plaintiff asked the Court to instruct, the jury, \u201cthat when there is a conflict of testimony be= tween witnesses c f equal respectability one of wh im is a,, party in interest and the other not, the jury have the right to consider the question of interest in deciding upon the credibility of the witnesses.\u201d His Honor did not give the instructions in so many u ords, but told the jury \u201cthat they had a right to consider all the circumstances attending the examination of the witnesses on the trial and to weigh their testimony accordingly.\u201d The plaintiff had a right to the instructions asked and it' may be \u2022 that the Court intended those given as a substantial compliance with the prayer for instructions. But we do not think they were or that the jury so understood th m \u25a0 It is questionable whether they or others understood that the interest of the defendant in the suit as affecting his credibility, was a circumstance attending the examination Of a witness, as distinguished from deportment, intelligence means of knowledge and the like, which are more frequently understood as circumstances attending the examination of witnesses At all events, the \u25a0charge was not such a clear and distinct enunciation of an important principle of evidence as could leave no reasonable doubt of its meaning in the minds of the jury. The prayer was distinct and the response should have' been equally so. For generations past and up to within the last few years, interest in the event of the action, however small, excluded a party altogether as a witness and that upon the ground, not that he may not sometimes state the truth, but because it would not ordinarily be safe to rely on his testimony. This rule is still applauded by great judges as a rule founded in good sense and sound policy.\u201d 1 Greenl. \u00a7 330.\nParties to the action are now competent witnesses, but the reasons which once excluded them still exist but go only to their credibility.\nInterest like infamy does go to the credibility; and therefore especially in the inauguration of the new rules of evidence, the relation of interest to credibility should be impressed upon the jury in all cases of conflict of testimony, not as necessarily turning the scale in matters of doubt, but as an important fact to be considered by the j ury in weighing one man\u2019s testimony against another\u2019s. The plaintiff' having asked for was entitled to the specific instructions.\nFor this error there must be another trial.\nPee, Curiam. Venire de rioro.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Bynum, J."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Mr. T. J. Wilson, for plaintiff.",
      "No counsel for defendant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "JESSE HILL v. JOHN SPRINKLE and another.\n\u25a0Judge\u2019s Charge \u2014 Prayer for Instructions.\nWhere a prajrnr for instructions to thG jury is distinct, the response of the Court should be equally distinct; Therefore, where counsel asked the Court to charge \u2018\u2018that when there is a conflict of testimony between witnesses of equal respectability, one of whom is a party in interest and the other not, the jury have the right to consider the question of interest in deciding upon the credibility of the witnesses,\u201d and the Court in-response told the jury that they had a right to consider all the circ urn stances attending the examination of the witnesses on the trial and to>weigh their testimony accordingly; Held to be error.\nCivil Action, tried at Eall Term, 1876, of Forsythe Superior Court, before Kerr, J-\nThe plaintiff demanded payment of $300, balance' due ora. a bond given for the purchase money of a tract of land.\nAs the only point decided in this Court involved the correctness of His Honor\u2019s charge to the jury in the Court below in response to instructions asked by plaintiff, which are set out by Mr. Justice Bynum in delivering the opinion, &, full statement of the facts is deemed unnecessary.\nYerdict for the defendant. Judgment. Appeal by the-plaintiff\nMr. T. J. Wilson, for plaintiff.\nNo counsel for defendant."
  },
  "file_name": "0353-01",
  "first_page_order": 365,
  "last_page_order": 367
}