Case Name: William S. Chapin vs. The Inhabitants of Marlborough
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1857-10
Citations: 9 Gray 244
Docket Number: 
Parties: William S. Chapin vs. The Inhabitants of Marlborough.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 75
Pages: 244–245

Head Matter:
William S. Chapin vs. The Inhabitants of Marlborough.
The narration by a patient to his physician of the cause of injuries received several months previously is not admissible as evidence of that cause.
Action of tort for injuries received by the plaintiff on the 11th of January 1856 from a defect in a highway.
At the trial in the court of common pleas before Mellen, C. J., the plaintiff called a physician, who testified “ that he saw the plaintiff for the first time on the 2d day of June 1856, and that the plaintiff showed him his leg and wished him to examine it; that the plaintiff complained of extreme pain in the leg; and said he had been struck by a horse, some number of months before, four or five months before, on that leg.” To this narration the defendants objected ; but the court admitted the testimony. The verdict was for the plaintiff, and the defendants alleged exceptions.
J. Q. A. Griffin, for the defendants.
C. R Train, for the plaintiff.

Opinion:
Metcalf, J.
The exception must be sustained, which was taken to the admission of the plaintiff's statement to his physician that his leg had been struck by a horse. It was a statement of a fact, and was used as evidence of that fact. It was therefore wrongly admitted. Willis v. Bernard, 8 Bing. 382. The rule of evidence, in cases like this, was rightly announced by Mr. Justice Bigelow, in Bacon v. Charlton, 7 Cush. 586, as follows : " Where the bodily or mental feelings of a party are to be proved, the usual and natural expressions of such feelings, made at the time, are considered competent and original evidence in his favor. There are ills and pains of the body, which are proper subjects of proof in courts of justice, which can be shown in no other way. Such evidence, however, is not to be extended beyond the necessity on which the rule is founded. Anything in the nature of narration or statement is to be carefully excluded, and the testimony is to be confined strictly to such complaints, exclamations and expressions as usually and naturally accompany, and furnish evidence of, a present existing pain or malady." The defendants are entitled to a new trial, in consequence of the admission of the plaintiff's statement. Exceptions sustained.