Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1912

Commonwealth v. Rodziewicz

Commonwealth v. Rodziewicz
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · Decided October 19, 1912 · Loring
213 Mass. 68; 99 N.E. 574; 1912 Mass. LEXIS 666

Counsel

H. W. Blake, for the defendant., J. A. Stiles, District Attorney, & E. T. Esty, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth, submitted a brief.

Commonwealth v. Rodziewicz

Opinion of the Court

Loring, J.

The testimony of the witness as to the conclusions drawn by him from what he saw was not admissible as the conclusions made by an ordinary witness from observation of things which cannot be reproduced and therefore although involving opinion admitted ex necessitate, as to which see Commonwealth v. Sturtivant, 117 Mass. 122, 133; Beverley v. Boston Elevated Railway, 194 Mass. 450; Partelow v. Newton & Boston Street Railway, 196 Mass. 24; Jenkins v. Weston, 200 Mass. 488.

Doubtless there are cases where the effect of some kinds of fire upon some kinds of material substance is not a matter of ordinary experience or knowledge such as men in general understand and comprehend. But the kind of fire pr fires which char ordinary mop-boards, sheathing and partitions and burn holes through an ordinary wooden floor without any charring or burning between *70is not one of them. See in this connection State v. Watson, 65 Maine, 74; Wood v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 40 Wis. 582; Higgins v. Dewey, 107 Mass. 494; Lyman v. State Mutual Fire Ins. Co. 14 Allen, 329; Fireman’s Ins. Co. v. J. H. Mohlman Co. 33 C. C. A. 347; 91 Fed. Rep. 85.

The entry must be

Exceptions sustained.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.