Morris v. Guffey

Citations

• 188 Pa. 534
• 41 A. 731
• 1898 Pa. LEXIS 642

Syllabus

<p>Principal and agent — Evidence—Declarations of agent — Cross-examination, — Credibility of witness.</p> <p>While an agent cannot by declarations subsequent to the act of agency affect his principals, his credibility as a witness may be assailed by showing that he made inconsistent statements to others. The effect of such statements, however, should be restricted by counsel in their argument and by the court in its charge to the contradiction of the witness.</p> <p>Evidence — Contradiction of party's witness — Cross-examination.</p> <p>The rule that a party cannot discredit his own witness does not apply to a case where plaintiff declares on a written contract in defendants’ hands, and is compelled to call the agent of the defendants to whom he had delivered the contract, and in whose hands he last saw it, to account for its nonintroduction, and who is afterwards called generally by defendants.</p> <p>Evidence — Lease—Printed forms.</p> <p>In an action upon an oil and gas lease alleged to have been written by the defendants’ agent, signed by the plaintiff and subsequently desti'03'ed by the defendants’ agent, it is improper to admit as evidence of its contents a particular form of lease used by defendants, and the fact that the defendants had taken many leases of a particular form, and under an arrangement with the recorder had the form printed in a lease book, which book had been used by the recorder.</p> <p>Practice, common pleas — Points—Charge to jury.</p> <p>Where points are presented in the alternative, and the plaintiff is entitled to the instructions asked in them, the court in affirming them commits no error in saying that if the jury do not find the facts as claimed in the points, the law as stated in them will have no application.</p>