Case Name: Commonwealth vs. John C. Sanders
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1860-01
Citations: 14 Gray 394
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. John C. Sanders.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 80
Pages: 394–394

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. John C. Sanders.
On trial of an indictment for embezzlement, the declarations of the person alleged therein to be owner of the property, though now deceased, are inadmissible to disprove his title.
Indictment for embezzling property of Allen Mason. At the trial in the court of common pleas in Bristol at June term 1859, the defendant offered to prove declarations and statements of Mason, who had since died, made after the alleged embezzlement and before the trial, tending to show that he was not the sole owner of the property, but that the defendant also had an interest in it. Morris, J. excluded the evidence, and the defendant alleged exceptions.
M. Robinson, Jr. for the defendant.
S. H. Phillips, (Attorney General,) for the Commonwealth.

Opinion:
Merrick, J.
The evidence of the declarations and statements of Allen Mason was mere hearsay, and for that cause rightly rejected. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 124. It makes no difference that he was dead, and that therefore his testimony could not be obtained. Baxter v. Abbott, 7 Gray, 71. Although the property alleged to have been embezzled belonged to him, yet he was not a party to the record, but a mere stranger, and therefore his declarations were in no way admissible to control or affect the prosecution against the defendant. Exceptions overruled.