4 Rawle 234 | Pa. | 1833
The opinion of the court was delivered by
A number of reasons have been assigned by the counsel of the plaintiffs, who are the appellants, why the verdict should be set aside and a new trial granted in this case, many of which do not appear to be sustained in fact, and none of the whole both in fact and law, in the opinion of the court, excepting the tenth ; which is, that the Circuit Court erred in admitting the evidence of John Jacoby and Morris Morris. So far as the evidence of these two witnesses, who had been members of an inquest and joined with their fellows in signing and sealing an inquisition, on the twentieth of February, 1818, wherein they reported Andreio Hutchinson to be of unsound mind, memory and capacity, so that he was not capable of governing himself, or of managing his estate, and that he had been
I do not consider this doctrine impugned by the decision in Ritchie v. Holbrooke, 7 Serg. & Rawle, 458-9, where it was merely ruled that the affidavit of a juror might be received to prove the misbehaviour of one of the parties to the suit. Besides regarding it as a record or registry made at the time, by those members of the inquest who signed and sealed the inquisition, of what they had done, and what upon full investigation and consideration of the evidence then given they found to be true, would it not be most dangerous for the cause of truth, to substitute their recollection for their report \ It might in effect be preferring parol evidence, proceeding from the frail and treacherous memory of witnesses, to that which may well be considered as partaking of the nature of record evidence; because it would be submitting both to the jury who might think proper to prefer the former to the latter and to build their faith upon it accordingly. Judicial experience, public policy, the security of public and private rights, reason, and common sense, all combine against the substitution or admission of such evidence. The decision of the Circuit Court, overruling the motion for a new trial, is reversed, the verdict set aside and a new trial granted.
New trial granted.