9 Pa. 186 | Pa. | 1848
As a general rule the law presumes, in favour of innocence, that an alteration in an instrument is a legitimate part of it, till the contrary appears; but it is not extended to negotiable securities. The principle of the English cases is, that an alteration so far apparent on the face of a bill or note as to raise a suspicion of its purity, makes it incumbent on the plaintiff to prove that it is still available, and that it is not incumbent on the defendant to disprove it. Johnson v. The Duke of Marlborough, 2 Stark. Rep. 313; Henman v. Dickinson, 5 Bing. 183; Bishop v. Chambre, 3 C. & P. 53; and Leykariff v. Ashford, 12 Moore, 281, establish that the general presumption of innocence in such a case is overborne by the nature of the instrument. It was doubted by the learned commentators on Mr. Phillips’s Treatise on the Law of Evidence, vol. 2, p. 229, whether the principle of the English decisions would be adopted by the American cotirts. The later decisions in the United States are discrepant, but their pre
Judgment reversed, and a venire facias de novo awarded.