Case ID: vt_91/html/0157-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Powers, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Josephine Ward v. Alice Ward and Trustee.
    January Term, 1917.
    Present: Munson, C. J„ Watson, Haselton, Powebs, and Taylob, JJ.
    Opinion filed January 18, 1917.
    
      Trial1 — Improper Argument — Disclosure of Trustee.
    
    The disclosure of a' trustee, though filed in the case, is no part of evidence, and a reference to its Contents, made by counsel for plaintiff during argument to the jury, is wholly unwarranted and, upon exception taken, requires a reversal.
    Contract. Plea, the general issue. Trial by jury at the June Term, Addison County, Miles, J., presiding. Yerdict and judgment for the plaintiff.' The defendant excepted. The opinion states the case.
    
      Ira H. LaFleur for the defendant.
    
      L. C. Bussell and J ames B. Donoway for the plaintiff.
   Powers, J.

During his argument, counsel for the plaintiff told the jury that the disclosure of the trustee showed the sum of $1,300 in the Burlington Savings Bank to the defendant’s credit.. This was excepted to and requires a reversal. The disclosure of the trustee, though filed in the case, was no part of the evidence, and reference to its contents was wholly unwarranted. Blaisdell v. Davis, 72 Vt. 295, 48 Atl. 14; Drown v. Oderkirk, 89 Vt. 484, 96 Atl. 11. A reference to a defendant’s financial condition is one naturally prejudicial to his case, and we have no doubt that it had this effect in the case before us.

Reversed and remanded.