Case ID: ohio-st_21/html/0653-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court :", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

George M. Moots v. The State of Ohio.
    Where a witness truly made the entries in a freight hook of a railroad company, on the day the entries purport to have been made, in the regular course of business, including an entry of a particular shipment in question, the freight hook is admissible in evidence, with the oath of the witness showing these facts, although, at the time of testifying, he has no recollection of the particular shipment, or of anything of the date of its entry, and although his memory is not refreshed by the hook, and he knows nothing of the matter except as he sees it in the hook.
    Motion for writ of error to the court of common pleas of Logan county.
    At the March term, 1872, of tbe common pleas, George-M. Moots was indicted for stealing George P. Vernon’s mare, in Logan county, on May 9th, 1871. Plea — not guilty.
    At the trial, the State having offered evidence tending to prove that the mare was stolen in the night of May 9th, 3871, and taken to London, in Madison county, and that Vernon recovered his mare in Cincinnati on May 12th, 1871, offered Erank Shaw as a witness, who testified that he was agent of the Pan Handle railroad company at London; that he had no recollection of the defendant Moots, nor of any horse or mare being shipped in May, 1871, from London to Cincinnati; that he could remember nothing of that date or shipment after examining the freight book of the railroad company; and that his memory was not refreshed by that book; and that he knew nothing except as he saw it in the book; but that he made the entries in the freight book, and that the book was a true record; and that in shipping, the railroad company made no distinction in their book between horses and mares; and that the entry was made in the regular order of business, on the day it purported to be. The State then offered the freight book of the railroad company in evidence to prove to the jury that on the 10th day of May, 1871, two horses were shipped in the cars of the railroad company from London to Cincinnati. Moots objected to the admission of this testimony, but his objection was overruled, and the testimony was admitted; and exception taken by Moots, who now asks for a writ of error, insisting that the court erred in allowing the freight book to go to the jury as evidence.
    
      John A. Price (with Walker & Kennedy) for the motion :
    1 Greenl. Ev. secs. 82, 436, 437, 491, 493, 495; Farrington v. The State, 10 Ohio, 354; Halleck v. The State, 11 Ohio, 400.
    
      Duncan Dow, prosecuting attorney, contra :
    1 Greenl. Ev. (12th ed.) secs. 436, 437, and note 3 and cases therein cited; 1 Chitty’s Crim. Law, 619.
   By the Court :

We are of opinion that the freight book was properly admitted in evidence. The witness made the entries in the book, including the entry of May 10th. He made the entries truly, and in the regular order of business, on the day they purport to have been made. This, in effect, is that the witness, on May 10th, truly entered the fact that two horses were then shipped from London to Cincinnati, The entry in the book and the oath of the witness supplement each other. The book was really a part of the oath, and, therefore, admissible with it in evidence. 1 Greenl. Ev., see. 437, (12th ed.) and note 3.

Motion overruled.

West, J., did not sit in the case, having formerly been of counsel.