HOW TO GROSS-EXAMINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 23 April 1907, Page 1

HOW TO GROSS-EXAMINE.

With the right man in the case, it needs but ithe slightest slip by the .witness, and he is delivered into the hands of tha enemy. A gpoo-d example is given in Mr Francis I_. Wullman's volume on the subject. Ton thousand pounds were claimed by a lady, wiio had sustained injuries by falling over somo obstruction in a street car in Now lYork. She was carried into court, sus^ tamed by females with solicitude demonstrative enough to have done credit even to Mrs Bardell's friends The gTeat witness upon whom she placed relianco was a very experienced , doctor, who spent half his life in the witnessbox gpiving export testimony in cases of this sort. He had attended the plaint iif, and mado over two hundred examinations of her. He now describedl for three-quarters of an hour lJ_.r sufferings and tpfie horrible fate to which, he saipd, she was faevHubly doomed. Tho defence was Uiat the complaint from which the woman suffered was a form of hysteria. But how to shake the doctors evidence? Counsel began 'oy showkig that witness had for many yeura -actcU as wiliHSpj ior various railways, and been kept so busy that he could not have had much leisure for study of recent casts. What aedical authority agrood w-itih hiuif, Dr JErskino agreed with him in v J__skine on the Spine." Howl had he found time to study that work? "Well," said the witness, "to tell the truth, I have often heard of you, and I half suspected that you would ask me somo foolish question, so this niornin'g after break- , fast I took down my copy of Krskine's book, and found that he entirely agreed with my diagosis.' Counsel poped his hand undce the table, and instantly produced the very book 'Show mo tho passage,' h said, - Oh I carii't do it now.' answered the doctor; "it is a very thick fcook book." Counsel romind-crt him that ho had 'Only just previously ooked at it, and that he should have no dilliculty in findings the reference; there was I'lenty o£ time available, Counsel sat down to. give the witness time. The doctor dared not opc-n the book. He lelt tho box overwhelmed. Tho jury knew that he bad Hod, and tho plaintiff lost her case. In a similar case damagos were claiuiod lor a fractured an<Uo by a doctor's house-keeper. Her employe was a man well known in socioty circlet*; was famous as a practitioner, and popular as a cl.ub man. He himself had set the broken M'm)}i, and was bor chief witness. Counsel goo out the fact that his practice was not that of a specialist, liittlo by little it was admitted that ho had not had a case of thisi sort for a year, for two yenrs, for live — indeed, never since his .student days in hospital; whereas like casus were treated every day in the surgical wards, and complete cures effected. Then came tests. A bone was handed up. The doctor descri-bod it as that of a woman's leg. "What-?" said counsel. It was a woman's leg but the doctor blushed and s a id that he had meant to say a man's, legp. Ho was puzzled as to whether it was the right or the left, and so utterly, confused when counsel handed up the bones of a foot that he tried to fit tho kneo into the ankle. That woman got £40, and t'ho cross-examination had saved a hundred times that sum. The Judge, in summing up, commented upon the smallness of the amount of arsenic found. It seemed' ' rather to agree with Ballantine's defence that the victim had accidentally got hold of a. little rat poison carelessly left about. When thu jury had gone to consider their, verdict the .J udge turned to the pert, who was now seated on the bench next to him, and spoke aibouu tho comparative absence of arsvuic from pthe body. The specialist i U pformed him that if ho had been asked the question either i n his oxanwnation-in-chief or in crossexaromation he would bave stated that the amount of arsenic found indicated^ under the circumstances detailod in the evidence thla't a large quantity had boen used. The Judge did not feel justified in calling back the jury to communicate this startling fact to them. Tib witness had acted rightly in not volunteering more evidence than he was asked to give. The woman was acquitted — thanks, as Ballon-tine maintained, to silent'cross-examina-tion.

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