Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/165/486/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 06:27:55+00:00

Document:
Beyond this, however, the application is one addressed to the discretion of the court, and its action thereon is not subject to review. Rosen v. United States, 161 U. S. 29, 161 U. S. 35; Commonwealth v. Giles, 1 Gray 466; Commonwealth v. Wood, 4 Gray 11; State v. Bacon, 41 Vt. 526. While such applications are ordinarily, and should be, granted wherever the accused is liable to be surprised by evidence for which he is unprepared, it is difficult to see how the defendant in this case was prejudiced by its refusal. The alleged obscene matter was contained in a published newspaper to which his own name was attached as proprietor, and of which he had in fact been the proprietor for several years, the days and editions of which were set forth in the several counts. He was duly informed upon the trial of what particular advertisements the government complained, and requested the court to charge the jury that they were not obscene within the meaning of the law. He thus gained every advantage that he could possibly have had by the production of the advertisements prior to the trial.
This question was elaborately considered by Mr. Justice Bradley in Knickerbocker Life Ins. Co. v. Pendleton, 115 U. S. 339, in which evidence of the custom and usage of a bank, offered in support of the evidence of the cashier of his conviction and belief that a draft had been presented for payment, came within the rule which allowed the course of business to be shown for the purpose of raising a presumption of fact in aid of collateral testimony. Indeed, the authorities are abundant to the proposition that where a question is made whether a certain paper or other document has reached the hand of the person for whom it is intended, proof of a usage to deliver such papers at the house or of the duty of a certain messenger to deliver such papers creates a presumption that the paper in question was actually so delivered. Business could hardly be carried on without indulging in the presumption that employees who have certain duties to perform and are known generally to perform such duties will actually perform them in connection with a particular case. Thus, if it be shown that a letter, properly stamped, has been mailed, there is a presumption that it reached the person addressed, or if letters properly directed to a gentleman be left with his servant, it is reasonable to presume that they reached his hands. Macgregor v. Keily, 3 Exch. 794; Skilbeck v. Garbett, 7 Q.B. 846; Hetherington v. Kemp, 4 Campbell 193; Dana v. Kemble, 19 Pick. 112; Goetz v. Bank, 119 U. S. 551; 1 Greenl. on Ev. § 40.

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 § 40