McFadden v. Wallace

Citations

• 38 Cal. 51
• 1869 Cal. LEXIS 109

Syllabus

<p>Evidence—Cebtain Tests by which its Value may be Detebmined.—In support of a claim that a verbal lease had been entered into fifteen years before suit, upon which it was alleged that payments had been made, if no written evidence of such payment is claimed to have been given; if, at every payment of rent, some party, by mere chance, was present, and these parties were fomid, and produced as witnesses at the trial; if each of these parties should very particularly remember remarks made—the payment of rent—the amount paid—the kind of coin in which it was paid; if the sum paid amounts to moro than the sum due under the alleged lease; if these witnesses have never thought of the transactions from the time of their occurrence until called on tho stand—had never spoken to the plaintiff, or to his attorney, or to any human being about it—there are such intrinsic improbabilities inherent in the testimony, as to render it extremely unsatisfactory, when introduced to support a stale claim.</p> <p>Evidence.—When the situation of a witness is such that he probably would have known, or heard of a fact, from the parties themselves, if it had existed, and had never heard of it, it affords some slight ground for the inference that the fact did not exist; and, under the condition of the evidence in this case, such testimony was admissible.</p> <p>Idem.—Declarations of a party are always admissible against himself, or those claiming under him, by conveyance made subsequent to the making of the declarations, without reference to the time when, or place where they were made.</p> <p>Idem.—In determining whether title ever vested under the Van ÍTess Ordinance, on a stale claim, all the acts and declarations, wherever made, are admissible against tho party claiming, for the purpose of ascertaining what he did really do to bring himself within the purview of the ordinance.</p> <p>Jueob—Qualification of One who declares that he knows the defendants, and, if the testimony was evenly balan