Neilson's Appeal

Citations

• 230 Pa. 540
• 79 A. 709
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 649

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Practice, C. P. — Commissioner of foreign court — Answer to interrogatories — Oral examination — Act of June 25, 1895, P. L. 279.</p> <p>1. Where a commission issued by the court of another state for the examination of witnesses in this state permits inquiries of witnesses necessary to explain and elucidate answers already given to the written interrogatories, the commissioner may apply to the common pleas for an order requiring the witnesses to answer oral questions, but in his application there must be a specific averment of the particular interrogatories and the answers complained of, so that the court may judge whether or not such answers require explanation or elucidation. The Act of June 25, 1895, P. L. 279, worked no change in policy in such proceedings.</p> <p>2. A court of this state commits error in directing answers to oral questions on the application of a commissioner appointed by a court of another state where the court is not asked to, and as a matter of fact does not, pass upon the sufficiency of any of the answers already given and the examination is not restricted to the elucidation of any designated answers, and this is so although the permission for oral examination is restricted to questions necessary to explain fully the answers already given to the written interrogatories.</p>