Berkley v. Maurer

Citations

• 34 Pa. Super. 363
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 140

Syllabus

<p>Judgment — Opening judgment — Forgery—Evidence—Indictment—Estoppel of record — Contradiction of party.</p> <p>On the trial of an issue to determine the validity of a judgment entered upon a judgment note signed by two persons, where one of the defendants swears that his signature was a forgery, it is proper to admit in evidence a written information signed and sworn to by the plaintiff, charging the other defendant with having feloniously forged to the note in suit, the name of the defendant who denied his signature. Such evidence, however, is not conclusive on the plaintiff, nor is it necessary that it be -regarded as contradictory of any testimony delivered by him on the witness stand.</p> <p>A witness speaks in court through his testimony only and hence his testimony forms the sole -basis upon which the inconsistency of his other statement is predicated. But a party, whether he himself take the stand or not, speaks always through his pleadings and through the testimony of his witnesses put forward to support his pleadings; hence the basis upon which may be predicated a discrediting inconsistency on his part includes the whole range of facts asserted in his pleadings and -in the testimony relied on by him. Thus, in effect and broadly, anything said by the party may be used against him as an admission, provided it exhibits the quality of inconsistency with the facts subsequently asserted by him in pleadings or in testimony.</p> <p>On the trial of an issue to determine the validity of a judgment, where one of the two defendants testifies that his signature is a forgery, an indictment against the other defendant returned by the grand jury as a true bill, is inadmissible; and it is immaterial that the name of the plaintiff had been indorsed on the bill by the district attorney, as a witness for the state. Such testimony is dangerous, as it would be both easy and natural for the jury to regard the finding of the grand jury as a determination, by an independent tribu