Title: In re Inquest Proceedings

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

In re Inquest Proceedings  (96-108); 165 Vt 549; 676 A.2d 790

[Opinion Filed 21-Mar-1996]


                           ENTRY ORDER

                 SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 96-108

                        MARCH TERM, 1996


In re Inquest Proceedings    }        APPEALED FROM:
                             }
                             }        District Court of Vermont,
                             }        Unit No. 2, Chittenden Circuit
                             }
                             }
                             }        DOCKET NO.:  None


       In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       Appellants, parents of a twenty-five-year-old son, appeal from an
  order of the Chittenden District Court that denied their motion to quash an
  inquest subpoena and held them in civil contempt for failing to testify at
  an inquest proceeding.  Appellants assert a testimonial parent-child
  privilege with respect to any incriminating communications imparted to them
  in confidence by their son and to their own observations of any
  incriminating conduct of their son.  We affirm.

       Vermont has not recognized a parent-child privilege either at common
  law or in our rules of evidence.  Indeed, the majority of states and
  federal circuits have refused to recognize such a privilege.  See, e.g.,
  State v. Willoughby,