82 Me. 512 | Me. | 1890
Action to recover upon a promissory note for $500, dated February 9, 1876, payable on demand to E. B. Nickerson or bearer.
The defense was that the note was a forgery; that the defendant never signed it, and never had any dealings with the alleged payee out of which this note grew or could grow; that he never received any money or any property of any kind from him, except possibly a harness, and that was allowed on rent due the defendant.
The plaintiff, son of E. B. Nickerson, testified that he acquired title to the note in the fall of 1887.
The exceptions show that much evidence was introduced by
It was claimed, on the part of the plaintiff, that the note in suit was given to take up a $800 note and interest, and a balance in cash at the. time sufficient to make up the sum for which the note was given; and that the $300 note was made up of forty dollars loaned defendant to pay for a mowing machine, fifty dollars cash loaned at another time, and a sufficient amount at the time the note was given to make up the $300.
It appeared in evidence that in the latter part of May, 1888, in response to a letter, E. B. Nickerson went to the defendant’s house, and there he and the defendant talked over the matter of the note; that at that interview, as the defendant and his wife testified, the defendant said he did not remember of ever having a dollar of him in his life; that Nickerson then asked the defendant if he did not remember of his paying him a note of $200 at the Russell house; to which the defendant replied that he never did; that Nickerson then said to the defendant, “Don’t you remember my paying Henry Sawyer fifteen dollars for you ?” And to this the defendant replied, “No, sir, I don’t remember it, and you never did.”
The defendant then called the said Henry Sawyer as a witness, and asked him if Nickerson at any time paid to him fifteen dollars for the defendant. This item did not constitute any part of the consideration of the note in controversy.
To this inquiry and the answer thereto the plaintiff’s counsel objected, and the court excluded the answer.
The defendant then offered to show by the same witness that Nickerson never paid him the fifteen dollars for the defendant, and objection being interposed by the counsel for the plaintiff, the court excluded the evidence.
To this ruling, excluding the answer and the evidence offered, the defendant duly excepted.
After the evidence had been offered and excluded, the plaintiff called E. B. Nickerson, and he testified in relation to the inter
If the only bearing of the evidence offered was to prove a collateral fact, it was not relevant and was properly excluded. The question is whether it was relevant or not. Collateral facts are not admissible. The evidence must be relevant to the issue, that is, to the facts put in controversy by the pleadings. This rule prohibits the trial of collateral issues, — of facts not put in issue by the pleadings, — and excludes evidence of such as are incapable of affording any reasonable presumption or inference as to the principal fact or matter in dispute. It is oftentimes difficult to decide what is and what is not relevant. It depends somewhat upon the nature of the issue involved. The relevancy of evidence of other facts, as bearing upon the probability or non-probability of the main fact in issue, has been one of the most troublesome questions for the courts to decide.
Relevancy, as defined by the text writers upon evidence, “is that which conduces to the proof of a pertinent hypothesis ; a pertinent) hypothesis being one which, if sustained, would logically influence the issue. * * ® If the hypothesis set up for the defense is forgery, then all facts which are conditions of forgery are relevant. A party, for instance, sued on a bill sets up forgery; to meet this hypothesis, it is admissible for the plaintiff to prove that the defendant, at the time of the making of the bill, was trying to borrow money. Hence it is relevant to put in evidence any circumstance which tends to make the proposition at issue either more or less improbable.” 1 Whar. Ev. §§ 20, 21. And in accordance with this principle it was held by this court, in Trull v. True, 33 Maine, 367, that “testimony cannot be excluded as irrelevant, which would have a tendency, however remote, to establish the probability or improbability of the fact in controversy.” Tucker v. Peaslee, 36 N. H. 167, 168. So in Huntsman v. Nichols, 116 Mass. 521, where it was held that, although the authenticity of the note in suit was the only issue, yet the business transactions between the parties had some bearing upon the probability of the indorsement having actually been made by the
Moreover, in cases where knowledge or intent of the party was a material fact, evidence of other facts happening before or after the transactions in issue, have been received in evidence, although they had no direct or apparent connection with it. Such facts, if they tend to establish knowledge or intent, when that is material, although apparently collateral and foreign to the main issue, nevertheless, have a direct bearing and are admissible. Thus in Cook v. Moore, 11 Cush. 213, 216, Bigelow, J., says: “Whenever the intent of a party forms a part of the matter in issue, upon the pleadings, evidence may be given of other acts, not in issue, provided they tend to establish the intent of the party in doing the acts in question.” And see Nichols v. Baker, 75 Maine, 334; Jordan v. Osgood, 109 Mass. 457; 1 Gr. Ev. § 53; 1 Whar. Ev. §§ 30-33.
Applying these principles to the question before us, we think the evidence offered was admissible.
The pleadings denied the genuineness of the note, and all dealings with the alleged payee out of which the note could grow, or the receipt of any money from him. True, the central point of the issue was whether or not the note was a forgery. Around this revolved other facts, introduced by both parties, bearing on the probability or improbability of the defendant having signed the note in suit.
Such evidence was admissible as tending to lead the mind of
Exceptions sustained...