Folsom's Executors v. Scott

Citations

• 6 Cal. 460

Syllabus

<p>The admission of secondary evidence of a paper alleged to have been lost, is only allowable on proof of a bona fide, diligent search, unsuccessfully made for it in the place where it was most likely to be found, and that the party has exhausted in a reasonable degree all the sources of information and means of discovery naturally suggested by the nature of the case, and accessible to the party.</p> <p>Mere evidence of search is not sufficient, for the search may not have been diligent. Evidence that the library and papers of the party were destroyed by fire, except a few papers, accompanied by evidence of search for the particular paper, is insufficient, for the paper in question may be one of those saved from the fire.</p>