Evidence had been wrongly admitted. Lord Coleridge CJ said: ‘It is clear that a verdict so obtained in a civil case would not formerly have been allowed to stand, because until the passing of the Judicature Acts the rule was that if any bit of evidence not legally admissible, which might have affected the verdict, had gone to the jury, the party against whom it was given was entitled to a new trial, because the Courts said that they would not weigh evidence. Where, therefore, such evidence had gone to the jury a new trial was granted as a matter of right.’
Irrespective of whether counsel objects to the admission of certain evidence, it has been said that there is an overall duty on the trial judge to ensure that only legally admissible evidence goes in to the record of the trial
Judges:
Lord Coleridge CJ
Citations:
(1887) 18 QBD 537
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Teper v The Queen PC 1952
The defendant was charged with arson of his own shop. A woman had been heard to shout to a passing motorist ‘Your place burning and you going away from the fire’.
Held: the defendant’s alibi could not be contradicted by the evidence of a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Evidence
Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.242106
