Donovan v. Ryan
Donovan v. Ryan
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This action was commenced before a justice of the peace to recover the sum of $248.86, claimed to be due on an account for certain excavating done by the plaintiff at the request of the defendant. On the trial anew in the circuit court, before a jury, the plaintiff had a verdict and judgment for the amount claimed, and the defendant appeals, assigning for error: (1) That the verdict is wholly unsupported by the evidence, and excessive; (2) that the defendant should have beeu granted a new trial upon affidavits filed by him to enable him to procure the deposition of one Farnum, an absent witness.
I. It is sufficient to say, touching the first of these assignments of error, that the question in dispute was whether the plaintiff did the excavating at the request of the defendant, or at the request of Farnum. Farnum
II. The second assignment of error is supported by an affidavit of the defendant and another affidavit of his counsel, explaining the efforts which they had made to secure the deposition of Farnum. Farnum, it seems, got involved in his contracts and absconded, and for a time his whereabouts were unknown. Finally the defendant discovered him to be at Los Angeles, California, and there, on the thirteenth of March, 1888, procured his affidavit, which is also filed in support of this ground of new trial. The affidavit of the defendant’s counsel is to the effect that about April, 1888, on discovering the whereabouts of Farnum, preparations were made to take his deposition; but before it could be taken he again disappeared, and his whereabouts were unknown till the time of the trial, and that it had subsequently been discovered that he was in Alameda county, California. The affidavit of the defendant’s counsel assigns, as a reason for not applying for a continuance on the ground of the absence of Farnum, that his whereabouts were unknown to the defendant and to the affiant at the time of the trial, and therefore the defendant could not bring himself within
It seems to be a just observation concerning this witness, first, that the defendant can give no satisfactory assurance that he will not again disappear in case a new trial is granted to procure his testimony; secondly, that his testimony is merely cumulative, being in support of that of the defendant Ryan ; thirdly, that he is discredited by his own conduct so that it does not appear that his deposition, if procured, would probably change the result on another trial. Under these circumstances it is clear that we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing the application for new trial on this ground. The judgment is, accordingly, affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.