5 Colo. App. 472 | Colo. Ct. App. | 1895
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was an action brought by the appellee against the
The plaintiff was a witness in his own behalf, and, upon his cross-examination, defendant’s counsel asked him whether he had made certain statements in a letter written by him to the defendant on July 4, 1887. Objection was made and sustained, that the question was improper, because the letter itself was the best evidence of its contents. Several like attempts to prove its contents were unsuccessfully made. The plaintiff admitted the authorship of the letter, and offered to let it go in evidence as an entirety, but counsel declined to introduce it.
The general rule, long established, is that the contents of a written instrument must be proved by the instrument itself, if it is in existence and can be produced. It is only upon proof of inabilit3r to produce it that secondary evidence of its contents can be received. This doctrine is as old as the common law. But the word “instrument” has a technical meaning in law. It is something reduced to writing as a means of evidence. It is the formal expression in writing of some agreement or obligation, or of some act upon which the rights of parties are dependent. Contracts may be made by letter, and when a contract is thus made the letters evidencing it are within the definition of the term ; but, ordinarily, a letter is not a written instrument, and the doctrine as stated would not apply to it. But at the trial of Queen Caroline, in 1820, the rule which obtained in the case of written instruments was applied to letters. 2 Brod. & Bing. 286. The opinion of the judges, in response to questions submitted b3r the house of lords, was that the contents of a letter must lie proved by the letter itself; that counsel could not
The doctrine of the judges has been adopted in this country, and it is accordingly held that a witness cannot be questioned as to what are the contents of a letter written by him, or as to whether he made particular statements in the letter, but that the whole letter itself must be read as the only competent evidence of what it contains. 1 Greenl. Ev., secs. 88, 463; Stamper v. Griffin, 12 Ga. 450, 455; Jackson v. Jackson, 47 Ga. 99, 117.
When the letter is in evidence, interrogatories directed to discrepancies between the testimony of the witness and his written statements are allowable; but the questions put by counsel were not proper, and the court rightly so held. But at a subsequent stage of the trial, the court, for some reason, reversed its former ruling and gave counsel full liberty to examine the witness as to the contents of the letter. Accordingly, questions of that character- were asked and answered without other restriction than the pleasure of counsel. Why error was assigned upon the first ruling, or why it is urged in this appeal, is not clear. If counsel omitted any question which he desired or intended to ask, it was his own fault. There was no obstruction in his way. The court gave him all that he at first claimed. If there was error originally, it was cured by the later ruling, and counsel has no cause for complaint.
Having permitted counsel to cross-examine the plaintiff concerning the contents of the letter, the court then allowed the plaintiff to introduce the entire letter in his own behalf, and this is assigned for error. It is generally tine that a party’s own declarations are not competent evidence, in his
The same course of examination which the court allowed upon the letter was undertaken by counsel upon the original complaint filed in the cause. After proving its verification by the plaintiff, he selected a statement which it contained, and asked the plaintiff if he had not sworn to that. Our observations made in the case of the letter also apply to the complaint, and the court correctly decided the question improper.
The plaintiff testified to certain conversations which he had with Mr. Rose, the husband of the defendant. The evidence was objected to because it was not shown that Rose was the defendant’s agent, or that he had any authority to speak for her. We are unable to discover any proof of agency, but most of this evidence was stricken out on motion of the defendant : and it was all — the portions striken out and what remained — unimportant and immaterial. The witness protested that he could not recollect what was said, but that the substance was that Mr. Rose wanted him to go and see the defendant and try to make some arrangement with her to work for her. This is what witness repeated in different forms at different times; and, presumptively, the reason why it was not all stricken out is that no request for that purpose was made. The contract testified to was made entirely with the defendant herself, all the conversations concerning it were
The last question to be considered relates to the giving and refusing of instructions. Those requested by the defendant were in the main unobjectionable. The only criticism to which they might be subjected is that they did not limit the verdict which the jury might return to the amount claimed in the complaint. They would have authorized the jury to find from the evidence the reasonable value of the services, whatever that value might be, and there was some evidence that they were worth more than was asked. This defect was supplied in the instructions given. These instructions were substantially the same as those requested; they embraced everything to which the defendant was entitled, and fairly stated the law applicable to the case. Exception is taken to the introductory portion, which is a synopsis of the plaintiff’s testimony concerning the alleged contract with the defendant. It assumed nothing as to the facts. It was a bare statement of what the plaintiff, in his testimony, claimed was the contract between himself and the defendant, without comment, or any expression which the jury could construe as indicating an opinion of the court. This was followed by a like and equally full statement of the defendant’s side of the case as answered by her. Both statements were fair and calculated to give the jury an intelligent idea of the issues involved. It is as important that the jury should have a definite understanding of the issues as that they should be correctly instructed in the law. The jury were then instructed that it devolved upon the plaintiff to prove his allegations by a preponderance of the evidence, and, if they believed that the evidence preponderated for him, they should find in his favor the reasonable value of his services, not exceeding the amount claimed in his complaint; but if, on the
There was irreconcilable conflict in the testimony, but in extracting the truth from it, and finding what the facts actually were, the responsibility was with the jury, and what they found is a final settlement of the dispute.
The judgment will be affirmed.
Affirmed.