Treon v. Brown
Treon v. Brown
Opinion of the Court
One question only is presented by the second and third assignments.
Can a party who has aided the circulation of negotiable paper, by giving currency to it as indorser, be admitted as a witness to impeach it, for facts accruing before or at the time he becamo a party ?
This question has been decided differently by-the courts of the different states of this Union, and in the courts of king’s bench. Grecnl. Ev. 453, 454. So far as is known, the'rule, as established in Walton v. Shelley, 1 Term, 296, has been uniformly followed in this state. It is, as we conceive, a rule of sound policy, tending to secure confidence in commercial transactions, and one that should not, for slight causes, be departed from. Rules governing commercial transactions should remain settled and uniform among a people so much inclined and so often compelled to engage in traffic and to deal in bills of exchange as are the people of the 488] United States. ^Notwithstanding tho old rule of Lord Mansfield has been disregarded in some of the state courts, and shaken by more recent English decisions, it has been steadily ad
The remaining error assigned is, that the court permitted the drafts and protest to be received in evidence, when they ought to have been excluded.
It is not sufficient cause for rejecting evidence that, of itself, unsupported by other evidence, it fails to sustain the cause of action. If it tends to prove th.e issue, it must be admitted. The bill and protest certainly looked that way.
Under this assignment, the question of its sufficiency has been argued; but it is not presented, and therefore need not be further noticed. Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- John Treon v. Wilson N. Brown and Aaron Fuller, Partners, ETC.
- Status
- Published