87 P. 892 | Or. | 1906
delivered the opinion of the court.
At the threshold we are confronted with a motion to affirm
“Payette, Idaho, April 27th, 1903.
Mr. Henry Hjelmiek,
Payette, Idaho.
Dear Sir:
The assignment of the judgment against O. W. Porter in Malheur County, Or., for $2775.00 and $120 costs, we have entered for collection, proceeds of which when collected shall be subject to your order.
Tours truly
P. A. Devers, Cashier.”
The bill of exceptions further discloses that the person writing that letter was the officer so represented of the plaintiff herein. The statute, regulating the admission of evidence, contains the following provison:
“The original writing shall be produced and proved except as proyided in Section 703:” B. & C. Comp. § 771.
*591 “There shall be no evidence of the contents of a writing, other than the writing itself, except in the following cases: (3) When the original is a record or other document in the custody of a public officer:” B. & C. Comp. § 703.
It will be remembered that the case of the Moss Mercantile Company v. First Nat. Bank, was a suit in equity, and, a final decree having been rendered therein, the judge trying the cause was required to identify all the exhibits (B. & C. Comp. § 827), and, an appeal having been taken on the merits, the transcript brought up such matters to this court, where, in eases of that kind, they thereafter remain, constituting a judicial record (B. & C. Comp. § 741), which could have been proved by the production of the original or by a copy thereof certified by the clerk of this court and attested by his official seal: B. & C. Comp. § 742. The object of requiring the production of a copy authenticated in this manner is to identify a document which is in the custody of a public officer, so that it may be received in evidence, and though a judicial record cannot, over objection and exception, be proved by parol (Bowick v. Miller, 21 Or. 25, 26 Pac. 861), such record can be established by a writing the identity of which is acknowledged without objection, as in the case at bar, by-counsel for the adverse party who was authorized thus to speak for his client: 16 Cyc. 1024. The production of the best evidence, as stated in the objection to the admission of the letter referred to, was therefore waived.
It follows from these considerations that the judgment is reversed, and a new trial ordered. • Reversed.