Case ID: nys_34/html/0973-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HERRICK, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

PEOPLE v. BEAN.
    (Supreme Court, General Term, Third Department.
    July 6, 1895.)
    Appeal—Verdict Obtained by Perjury.
    A judgment entered on a verdict will be reversed, where it is apparent that the verdict was obtained by perjury.
    Appeal from circuit court, Franklin county.
    Action by the people against James H. Bean to recover a penalty for violating the game law. From a judgment entered on a verdict in favor of defendant, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial made on the minutes, plaintiff appeals.
    Reversed.
    Argued before MAYHAM, P. J., and PUTNAM and HERRICK, JJ.
    Cantwell & Cantwell (William P. Cantwell, of counsel), for the People.
    Samuel A. Beman (Charles A. Burke, of counsel), for respondent.
   HERRICK, J.

Where the court can see that a verdict has been obtained by transparent perjury, I do not think it should permit such verdict to stand. It is true that in this case it is extremely doubtful whether, upon the defendant’s own case, there was sufficient evidence to warrant a verdict in his favor, yet I am inclined to think, as did the trial court, that there was some slight evidence upon which the jury might find the nature of the article in question. The weakness of the plaintiff’s case arises from the palpable perjury of the witness Miller. The fact that he was a hostile witness, although sworn on behalf of the plaintiff, and the evident falsity of his testimony, might well be taken into consideration in weighing those portions of his evidence which slightly tend to prove the plaintiff’s case. The equally palpable perjury of Perkins, the only witness sworn for the defendant, exclusive of the defendant himself, rather gives weight to, than detracts from, the slight case made by the plaintiff’s evidence. A judgment founded upon such evidence should not be permitted to stand. The plaintiff should be given, if it so elects, another opportunity to establish its cause of action, and the witnesses a chance to repent and tell the truth, if that be possible.

Judgment reversed, and a new trial granted; costs to abide ths. event.

MAYHAM, P. J., concurs in result. • PUTNAM, J., not acting.