## Facts

- The matter was tried in April 1793 in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
- The report does not identify the underlying civil claim between Stansbury (plaintiff) and Marks (defendant) or the ultimate merits outcome.
- During trial, the defendant offered Jonas Phillips as a witness.
- Phillips was described as Jewish and refused to be sworn because the trial day fell on his Sabbath.
- The court responded by imposing a monetary fine of £10 on Phillips for refusing to be sworn.
- After the fine was imposed, the defendant waived the benefit of Phillips’s testimony and no longer sought to examine him.
- Following the waiver, the court discharged Phillips from the fine.
- The report provides no extended factual development, no discussion of accommodations, and no explanation of how the incident related to the parties’ proofs beyond the defendant’s initial effort to call the witness.

## Issues

1. Whether a trial court may sanction a proposed witness who refuses to be sworn and testify when the refusal is based on religious Sabbath observance.
2. Whether the court may remit or discharge the sanction once the party offering the witness waives the testimony.
3. What the incident reflects about the court’s authority to compel participation and maintain orderly trial procedure in the absence of a recognized exemption.

## Decision

- The court fined the witness £10 after he refused to be sworn because it was his Sabbath.
- After the defendant waived the benefit of the witness’s testimony, the court discharged the witness from the fine.
- No separate disposition on the parties’ underlying dispute is reported, and no written reasoning accompanies the court’s actions.

## Legal Principles

- A trial court may treat a refusal to be sworn when called as sanctionable conduct and may impose a monetary fine to enforce compliance with its process.
- A religious reason for refusing to be sworn, standing alone in the reported account, did not prevent the court from imposing a sanction.
- The court retains discretion to remit a coercive or punitive sanction tied to testimony once the offering party abandons the effort to obtain that testimony.
- Where the report contains only a procedural incident and no opinion, the decision supports, at most, a narrow proposition about courtroom authority over witnesses rather than a developed rule on religious accommodation.

## Conclusion

The court imposed a £10 fine on a witness who refused to be sworn due to Sabbath observance, but later discharged the fine after the defendant waived the witness’s testimony, reflecting judicial power to compel testimony and discretion to remit sanctions when their purpose no longer applied.


Stansbury v. Marks, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 213 (Pa. 1793)