8 Ga. 74 | Ga. | 1850
By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
As all the questions made during the progress of the trial, came under review on the motion for a new trial, we shall direct our attention exclusively to that.
All the Courts concur, that before the books of the party can be admitted in evidence, that they are'to be submitted to the inspection of the Court; and, if they do not appear to be a register of the daily business of the party, and to have been honestly and fairly kept, they are to be excluded.
Now, the difficulty is, in determining what fraudulent appearances, upon the face of the books, will authorize a Court to withhold them from the Jury. When it is recollected that a large portion of our blacksmiths, mechanics, and laboring men, who keep books, have never been taught this art, and many of them are entirely uneducated, it would not do to prescribe a rule, so stringent as to operate, in many cases, to the exclusion of the only evidence upon which they could secure the value of their labor. And it would seem to me, that the irregularities in the books should be exceedingly gross and palpable, to justify the Court in arresting the evidence, from that tribunal whose peculiar province it is7 to judge of the credibility of testimony.
I concede that the books might, upon their face, appear to have been so unfairly and dishonestly kept, as to authorize the Court to lay its hands upon them, and refuse their admission, at least until evidence was offered, explanatory of these discrediting circumstances. Suppose, for instance, the account on the books was entered, settled or satisfied in full. Surely, the books, fer se,
Upon these grounds, therefore, a new trial is awarded.
We find it unnecessary to express any opinion as to the alleged misconduct of the Jury, in dispersing before they rendered their verdict. The record does not show but that the Jury separated by the consent of the plaintiff in error, which, if given, as we are bound to presume it was, would have cured the irregularity, even if it be such a one as would otherwise have vitiated the verdict.
Judgment reversed.