Erie & Pacific Dispatch v. Stanley

Citations

• 123 Ill. 158
• 14 N.E. 212

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence — on cross-examination—to what matters restricted. A cross-examination must be limited to the subject matter of the direct examination. When a witness is examined, in chief, only as to the time and place of the delivery of goods to him as agent of the defendant, it is not proper, on his cross-examination by the defendant, to ask him about his, previous course of dealing with the plaintiffs’ agent, to show notice to him of restrictions of defendant’s liability.</p> <p>2. In this case, which was an action against a common carrier for damage to goods shipped, by reason of delay in transportation and want of care, after the defendant had closed its case the plaintiffs called in rebuttal the agent of the defendant, who had already testified for the defence, and showed him a duplicate of the bill of lading of the goods, merely for the purpose of refreshing his memory as to the date and place of shipment. On cross-examination, defendant, after calling out from the witness that the paper shown him, and which had not been offered in evidence, was a duplicate bill of lading, offered to show by the bill of lading that the risks of injury to the goods by reason of decay during transportation were specially excepted and assumed by the shippers, and that the receipt was a printed form used by the plaintiffs’ agent with the defendant: Held, that the matter referred to in the offer was not proper cross-examination, and was properly excluded.</p>