Case Name: Ellen Savage vs. Patrick Reardon
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1858-10
Citations: 11 Gray 376
Docket Number: 
Parties: Ellen Savage vs. Patrick Reardon.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 77
Pages: 376–376

Head Matter:
Ellen Savage vs. Patrick Reardon.
Since the St. of 1857, c. 305, the complainant in a bastardy process is a competent witness to prove her accusation of the respondent during her travail; and this fact, so proved, is corroborative evidence in her favor.
Bastardy process. At the trial of the complaint in the court of common pleas, the complainant testified that in the time of her travail she accused the defendant of being the father of her child. Morris, J. instructed the jury that the fact that the complainant during the pains of childbirth and before the birth charged the defendant with being the father of the child, was corroborative evidence in her favor, to be considered .and weighed by the jury. The jury found the respondent guilty, and he alleged exceptions.
A. jR. Brown, for the respondent.
B. F. Butler, for the complainant.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The testimony of the complainant that she accused the respondent of being the father of her child in the time of her travail was clearly competent under the Rev. Sts. c. 49, § 3. This provision is not repealed by the St. of 1857, c. 305; but she is made by that statute a competent witness for all purposes, even to the fact of her having accused the respondent in the time of her travail. Murphy v. Spence, 9 Gray, 399. The very purpose of the provision of the statute requiring such previous accusation was to confirm the testimony of the complainant at the trial, by showing that in time of great distress and peril of her life she continued constant in her charge. The court therefore rightly instructed the jury that the fact of such accusation was corroborative of her testimony at the trial
Exceptions overruled.