Case Name: VAN PELT against VAN PELT
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1810-05
Citations: 3 N.J.L. 657
Docket Number: 
Parties: [486] VAN PELT against VAN PELT.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 236–236

Head Matter:
[486] VAN PELT against VAN PELT.
ON CERTIORARI.
Admission of a witness under fourteen years of age, discretionary.
The counsel for the plaintiff in this court, who was the defendant below, moved to reverse the judgment of the justice, on the ground that he had at the trial rejected a legal witness. The facts which appeared from the proceedings below were, that a boy, a son of the defendant below, was offered as a witness. The justice certified that he was then informed that he was about twelve years of age, and that he did not appeal’ to understand the nature of an oath. Affidavits were taken since the trial, to prove that the boy was a few days more than fourteen years of age at the time of the trial.

Opinion:
By the Court.
If it has appeared to the justice at the time of the trial, that the witness was fourteen years of age, and that he was possessed of ordinary understanding; that is, was not uncommonly deficient in mental qualifications, the justice ought to have taken his testimony, and left it to the jury to judge of the credit due to it. But as it did not appear to the justice that the boy was fourteen years of age at the trial, we incline to think that his capacity as a witness was a proper subject of discretion in the justice; and therefore, that the judgment must be
Affirmed.