Henry Billings Brown

“ Hillmon was a man of no property, and after his marriage he and his wife occupied a single room in the house of one Mary Judson, and did their cooking upon her stove. Baldwin and Hillmon became interested in life insurance, and consulted various agents as to their companies and about methods of collection in case of loss. In a conversation with one Wiseman in February, 1879, Hillmon stated that he was going west on business and might get killed; asked about proofs of death; what the widow must do to get her insurance money and what evidence she would have to furnish if he were killed. ”

“ The proposed testimony of Phillips, who was a physician, and had been called professionally by Baldwin to his house in the summer of fall of 1878, related to certain inquiries made by Baldwin as to the effect of death upon bodies. In this connection defendant offered to prove that Baldwin asked the witness if he had any insurance upon his life, and said he had been thinking about taking out some himself, and in the same conversation asked Phillips how long before a dead body would decompose after it was buried. ”

“ The only effect of allowing the plaintiff six peremptory challenges was to put three additional men upon the jury, which the defendant could not challenge, and if it had exhausted its peremptory challenges it might perhaps claim to have been prejudiced by the fact that three men had been put upon the jury which it was not entitled to challenge ”

“ Upon the cross-examination of Buchan the plaintiff offered in evidence an affidavit made by Brown on September 4, 1879, in which he repeated the substance of the conversation testified to by Buchan, and stated that instead of Hillmon being killed it was another man whom Hillmon shot. This affidavit had already been produced, though not formally put in evidence by the defendant on the cross-examination of Brown. ”

“ The conspiracy then existed and was still pending. Smith v. National Ben. Soc. 123 N. Y. 85, 9 L. R. A. 616, 25 N. E. 197.
These declarations, taken together, tend to show that Baldwin, who seems to have taken the most active part in the transactions connected with this policy, was heavily indebted, and being pressed by his creditors; that he expected in some way to obtain a large part of Hillmon's insurance, and that he was also desirous of going into a sheep ranch with Hillmon, with whom he declared he had a scheme under consideration by which they could raise the necessary funds ”

“ On June 14, 1882, the three original cases were first consolidated for trial, and so remained through all the trials which took place prior to the settlement with the New York Life. The propriety of this consolidation was affirmed by this court upon its first appearance here in 145 U.S. 285, 36 L. ed. ”