Margett v. Wilson

Citations

• 85 Wash. 98
• 147 P. 628

Syllabus

<p>Appeal — 'Harmless Error — Refusal of Continuance. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 297, providing that new matter in a reply shall he deemed controverted without further pleading addressed thereto, the refusal of the court to grant a continuance to enable defendants to reply to new matter set up in the plaintiffs’ amended reply, filed a few days before the case was set down for trial, was not prejudicial error, where the defense thereto was gone into fully at the trial.</p> <p>Witnesses — Competency—Transactions With Deceased Persons. An affidavit of a defendant that he and his deceased wife had conveyed away a tract of land, being admissible against him as a declaration against interest, would not be inadmissible against their children as hearsay; since whatever interest the children have comes through their deceased mother, and the alienation, if made by the parents, would he complete as against the children.</p> <p>Lost Instruments — Lost Deeds — Evidence — Sufficiency. The rule that one who relies upon a lost deed to sustain his title must establish the original existence of the deed, its loss, and the material parts thereof by convincing evidence is met by the affidavit of the grantor setting forth that a quitclaim deed was executed and delivered by him to plaintiff’s grantor, describing the property, the kind of deed, and the consideration therefor, which affidavit was corroborated by evidence showing that plaintiff’s grantor and plaintiffs regularly paid the taxes each year thereafter, that the quitclaim was given to the holder of a mortgage for $500 on the land in consideration of that debt and the payment of $25 additional, and that the land at the time of the quitclaim deed was worth only $400; although defendant testified that the $25 was given as earnest money on an agreement to pay $1,200 therefor, and that no part of the mortgage debt has ever been paid.</p>