Allen v. Hoxey's Administrator

Citations

• 37 Tex. 320

Syllabus

<p>1. Before announcing ready for trial in the District Court, lit is proper practice to present to the court exceptions to depositions, not only as to the manner in which they were taken, but also, in some instances, on account of the matter sworn to, or of the character of the interrogatories or answers.</p> <p>2. Some two months before the trial, the plaintiif served*' the defendant’s attorneys with notice that certain objections would bejtaken to certain depositions returned at the instance of defendant. W[ien the case was called for trial, the plaintiff urged the objections, and the depositions were suppressed; whereupon defendants moved for a. continuance on the ground of surprise, etc. MM, that it was not errpr to refuse the continuance. 1</p> <p>3. The certificate to a deposition recited that the deponent Appeared before B., the clerk of the District Court of T. county, but the certificate was signed in the name of the clerk “by C., deputy clerk.” He Id, notwithstanding this incongruity, that the certificate shows that the deposition was taken by the deputy ; and the opinion is expressed that, under our statute empowering deputy district clerks to take depositions, etc., the deputy might have certified the deposition in his own name alone. (Paschal’s Digest, Article 496.)</p> <p>4. In a deposition no answer was given to an interrogatory as follows : “ State anything else you may know that would be of benefit to the “ defendant, connected with the title in controversy.” Held, that this interrogatory is not in proper form, and, moreover, the failure to answer it must be ascribed to the witness’s ignorance of anything more than he had already stated ; wherefore it was not error to overrule defendant’s motion to suppress the deposition, based on the omission of an answer to the interrogatory.</p> <p>5. Testimony by deposition may sufficiently prove the identity and execution of an instrument which is an archive of the General Land Office, notwithstanding the imp