191 Pa. 556 | Pa. | 1899
Opinion by
The only question at issue in this ease was whether the plaintiff abstained from protesting the notes in suit in consequence of the request of the defendant to that effect. It was a pure question of fact. A very considerable amount of testimony was taken, especially on the part of the plaintiff, and the defendant gave evidence himself in support of his own contention. The question was very carefully explained and submitted to the jury with suitable comments by the learned court below, and the jury found in favor of the plaintiff, thereby determining that the defendant had requested the plaintiff not to protest his notes, and that it was in consequence of that request that the plaintiff no longer protested his maturing notes. That there was abundant testimony to support the finding of the jury will readily appear by a few citations. Thus, Mr. Keinhoel testified that he was cashier of the plaintiff’s bank and that the notes were not protested because of the defendant’s request to that effect. He was asked: “ Q. Will you please state whether any of these notes that you have now referred to have been protested at maturity? A. No, sir, they were not. Q. Why were they not protested ? A. Because he did not want them protested. Q. Please state when he made the request that the notes should not be protested. A. At the time he ceased making his notes payable in Philadelphia, payable at our bank. Q. When was that? A. Either December, 1893, or January, 1894, around there, somewhere. Q. Where were his notes at first generally made payable? A. At Philadelphia. Q. What occurred ? A. Sometimes protested. Q. What occurred with regard to future handling of notes ? A. Made them payable at our bank, said that he could control them better, three days of the week he was in Philadelphia and three days in the week at Myerstown, besides if they were protested he would have to pay it out of his own pocket and he did not care to have the notes protested, it looked as if he did not take care of his notes. Q. What did he say? A. He kicked against that. Q. I mean with regard to the future? A. Not at any time, none of them. . . . Q. What did he say with regard to the protesting ? A. That he did not want them protested. Q. Did he make any request with regard to the protesting or nonprotesting subsequent to that time? A. Often. Q. To whom?
In the face of such evidence as the foregoing, it matters nothing what kind of testimony the defendant gave on these subjects. He was the defendant in the case and therefore vitally interested in the result. The plaintiff’s witnesses were disinterested, and any jury would be entirely justified in rejecting his testimony altogether, and in giving credence to the plaintiff’s witnesses instead. It was a matter exclusively for the jury, it was their province only to determine whom they would believe and whom they would disbelieve. No argument in this Court founded upon the truth of the defendant’s testimony, and the untruth of the testimony given by the plaintiff, could have the slightest weight or be entitled to the least consideration, because that is a matter with which the jury alone must deal. But in point of fact the testimony given by the defendant, after he had undergone the process of cross-examination, did not in any serious sense contradict the testimony of the plaintiff’s witnesses. Very reluctantly he was obliged to admit, and did admit, that he did at various times request the cashier not to protest his notes. His claim was that he had not given any general instructions not to protest any of his notes. He did admit, even upon his examination in chief, that he had made such a request as to certain specified notes. On cross-examination, he was asked: “ Q. Do you deny having asked Karch (cashier) in the presence of Mr. Reinhoel, about the time that you changed the place of payment of your notes, that he should not protest any notes that they might discount for you payable at the Yalley National? Mr. Funck: That the witness has not said. Q. Don’t you know that you did make a request at that time, just in that way, asking the cashier not to protest your paper; that it would simply throw the expense on you? A. I did ask him that if I didn’t provide for the note in time. Q. That is you did ask him not to protest any of your notes provided you did not provide for their renewal in time? A. Yes, sir.” As all the notes in suit were past due and were unprovided for as to their renewal, they would naturally fall within the category which the defendant admitted by his answer to the last preceding question. On his further cross-examination he was confronted with numerous instances
As the present case was tried in precise accordance with these principles, there was no error in the trial, and the assignments are all dismissed.
Judgment affirmed.