Palmer v. Parker

Citations

• 91 Wash. 683
• 158 P. 1017
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 741

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Documentary Evidence — Identification. In an action to recover for legal services, an alleged written agreement of settlement of a cause conducted for defendant, which was not sued upon directly, was sufficiently identified to permit of its introduction in evidence, without identification of signatures, where the attorney testified it was the final agreement made hy him on behalf of defendant and the adverse parties to the suit, and where the attorneys for the adverse parties also generally identified it in their depositions.</p> <p>Trial — Reception of Evidence — Documentary—Reading to Jury. A document properly introduced in evidence may be read to the jury either by the party himself or by his attorney, where there are no explanations by the witness other than identification of items mentioned therein.</p> <p>Trial — Instructions—Comment on Facts. It is not an unlawful comment on the facts, in an action for attorney’s fees, in which the burden was upon defendant to prove his affirmative defense of payment of $7,500 in full for past and for future services, to instruct the jury “to entirely disregard said payment of $7,500,” if they do not believe by a fair preponderance of the evidence that such sum was intended to cover the future services.</p> <p>Payment — Pleading—-Burden of Proof. Payment must be pleaded in an affirmative defense, and the burden of proving it and its specific application is upon the party pleading it.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — Instructions. In an action by an attorney for legal services, an instruction “to entirely disregard” defendant’s payment of a sum pleaded as in full for all legal services, if the defense was not sustained by a fair preponderance of the evidence, was not prejudicial, where the instructions as a whole did not exclude that payment as an item to be considered in determining the reasonable value of the services rendered subsequent to such payment.</p>