Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1916

Prendergast v. Interborough Rapid Transit Co.

Prendergast v. Interborough Rapid Transit Co.
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York · Decided February 15, 1916
172 A.D. 967; 157 N.Y.S. 1142
Prendergast v. Interborough Rapid Transit Co.

Opinion of the Court

Order reversed, with costs, motion for new trial granted, costs to abide the event, upon the ground that the court erred in its charge upon the subject of adverse inference permissible to be drawn from the unexplained absence of a witness to a material fact. (Wade v. City of Mount Vernon, 133 App. Div. 389, 390; Reehil v. Fraas, 129 id. 563, 566.) Thomas, Stapleton, Mills and Putnam, JJ., concurred; Jenks, P. J., dissented upon the ground that the instructions in question as made at folios 652, 653 a.nd 672 did not constitute capital error.

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