196 Pa. 247 | Pa. | 1900
Opinion by
This case is between the same parties and in some particulars presents the same facts, as in No. 262, January term, 1899, opinion handed down this day.
Michael J. Scanlon was elected tax collector for the borough of Shenandoah for the year 1896; he gave bond in the penal sum of $100,000, with sureties, conditioned for the faithful
In the case before us, Mrs. Mellet testifies positively she did not sign and seal the bond; that she did not acknowledge it before John J. Cardin, a justice of the peace, and that she never saw this officer.
The bond, on its face, is regular; it is signed by a mark, the signature is witnessed by Thomas P. Reilly. Scanlon, the principal, testifies positively, that she signed it, at his request, in his presence ; that the witness Reilly is absent in the Klondike mines, but his name is his genuine signature; that when the acknowledgment was taken by the justice of the peace, he was present and heard Mrs. Mellet acknowledge it to be her signature. Justice Cardin does not remember, independently of his certificate, that Mrs. Mellet acknowledged the bond, but there were several sureties, and he remembers going with Scanlon from house to house and taking acknowledgments; in this particular the evidence is stronger than in the first case; he is positive, that he would not have appended the certificate unless Mrs. Mellet had been personally before him, and had acknowledged her signature.
Taking the facts as established by the evidence, for the same reasons as those given in the 1895 bond case, the decree of the court below discharging the rule is affirmed.