Peters v. Whalen
Peters v. Whalen
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appellant’s first specification of error relates to the rejection of a written agreement which purports in its text to be “between John Whalen and Mary, his wife, of Harrowgate, twenty-fifth ward, Philadelphia, as party of first part, and Archibald Neill, of 179 Berks street, Philadelphia, as principal, and the Industrial Trust, Title & Savings Company, of Philar delphia, as security, as party of the second part.” There is no definite date to this agreement nor was it signed or sealed by the Industrial Trust, Title & Savings Company. It was twice offered as evidence, twice objected to and the objection both times sustained. Which of these rulings of the court below is assigned for error does not distinctly appear in the appellant’s first specification of error.
This assignment might be properly disregarded as in violation of our Rule 17 which requires that “ when the error assigned is to the admission or rejection of evidence, the assignments must quote the full substance of the bill of exceptions or copy the bill in immediate connection with the assignment.” Assuming, however, that the assignment relates to the last offer which was made at the close of the defendants’ testimony, and overlooking the grave defect in the assignment itself, we can see no error in the ruling of the court below. Not only is there a total failure to lay the ground for the admission of the unsigned paper by reason of fraud, accident or mistake, but the testimony of the officer of the trust company clearly shows that it was never intended that the trust company should become the surety of Neill, the contractor, to the appellant. The contract of suret3,ship on the part of the trust company was to a building association from which money had been borrowed by the appellant for the purpose of erecting her house, and in pursuance of that contract, a title polic3r was issued to the building and loan association by the trust company. The officer of the trust company testified that it was never contemplated in any way that the paper offered in evidence was to be signed or sealed by his company, and that it never had “ any contract of any sort, kind or description ” with the appellant.
The appellant was called as a witness. She states in her testimony that she had heard the testimony of the representa
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.