Musser v. Stauffer

Citations

• 178 Pa. 99
• 35 A. 709
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 1137

Syllabus

<p>■ Affidavit of defense — The court cannot consider extraneous facts.</p> <p>On the hearing of a rule for judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense the court may not go outside of the case as presented by the claim and affidavit to consider extraneous facts either in support of or against the line of defense disclosed.</p> <p>Evidence — Laws of other states.</p> <p>The laws of another state of the Union are to be proved as those of a foreign country; and the law of another state will be presumed to be the same as that of the lex fori, in the absence of evidence to the contrary.</p> <p>Affidavit of defense — Laws of other states.</p> <p>On a rule for judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense, where the plaintiff’s statement shows that the contract for which suit was brought was made and was to be executed in another state, the court cannot consider the laws of the state of the contract, inasmuch as such laws must be proved, and this can only be done at the trial.</p> <p>On a rule for judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense the plaintiffs statement showed that the contract upon which suit was brought was made and was to be executed in Virginia. The defendant in his affidavit of defense averred that he had executed the instrument on the faith of a contemporaneous parol agreement with the plaintiff, the performance of which by the latter was a condition precedent to payment, and the nonperformance of which relieved the defendant from all liability. Held, that the affidavit justified the court in discharging the rule for judgment.</p>