Gulliford v. McQuillen

Citations

• 75 Kan. 454
• 89 P. 927
• 1907 Kan. LEXIS 85

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Evidence — Letters between a Party and a Stranger — Relevancy — Secondary Evidence. Where the contents of a letter written by a party to the action to a third party and of a letter of the third party to him are each entirely irrelevant to any issue in the case on trial, except that they tend to prove that the party to the suit was negotiating a trade which was afterward consummated, the letters are both competent evidence for that purpose, and may be introduced in evidence by reading the same; or if one be lost it is no abuse of discretion if the court allows a witness to testify to the receipt of the letter and to its purport or contents.</p> <p>2. - Wife of a Party as a Witness — Agency Not Shown. Where in a civil action the wife of one of the parties is produced as a witness on behalf of her husband to prove an admission by the adverse party that money paid by the husband to him was all that was due, it is not a sufficient showing to render the wife competent as such witness that she wrote the receipt for the money paid and usually did her husband’s writing and sometimes did other business for him. In such a case, to render her competent by reason of acting as the agent of her husband, it must appear that she was in fact engaged in the settlement of the accounts between her husband and the adverse party and that she had general or special authority from her husband, either express or implied, so to do.</p> <p>3. Practice, District Court — Impeaching Testimony Withdrawn before Rebuttal — Instructions. Where on the trial of a civil action one party introduces evidence tending to impeach the character for veracity of the other party, and the party sought to be impeached thereupon requests and the court allows a delay in the trial to enable the impeached party to obtain witnesses in rebuttal of such impeachment, and thereupon the other party, to save time, withdraws the impeaching evidence and the court orally instructs the jury to