2 Pa. 182 | Pa. | 1845
— The petition of Jacob Sailor, for the benefit of the insolvent laws, in 1817, ought not to have gone to the jury unattended with evidence that he was the person under whom the plaintiff claims. Identity of name is ordinarily, but not always, prima facie evidence of personal identity. The authorities, on the subject, may be consulted in Sewall v. Evans, 4 Ad. & Ellis, 632; (S. C. 45 E. C. L. R. 631,) from which Lord Denman, and the other judges of the Queen’s Bench, concluded that identity of name is something from' which an inference may be drawn, unless the name were a very common one, or the transaction remote; and the reason given for casting the onus on the party who denies, is that disproof can be readily had by calling the person, whose identity is contested, into court. The name, in this instance, is not a very common one; but after more than a quarter of a century there ought certainly to be some preliminary evidence, however small.
Without intimating an opinion on the facts that might have been proved, we hesitate not to say that the testimony of Isaac Young ought to have been admitted, that the jury might determine whether it proved an independent acknowledgment, by Ley, of Sailor’s title, and a declaration that he would not hold adversely to it, which, though accompanied with an offer to purchase, was allowed
Judgment reversed, and venire de novo awarded.