Wetherill Bros. v. Erwin

Citations

• 12 Pa. Super. 259
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 231

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Construction of oral and written evidence — Question for jury.</p> <p>When matters of fact depending on oral testimony are connected with and necessary to a proper understanding of the written evidence, the court is not bound to construe the latter as though it stood alone; an admission of oral and written evidence draws the whole to the jury.</p> <p>Charge of court — Adequate presentation.</p> <p>That a judge does not make all the remarks of which the nature of the case may admit is not invariably ground for reversal. If such were the rule few judgments would be affirmed, for there are few cases in which something in addition, that might have been appropriately said, could not be suggested.</p> <p>If the trial judges were compelled to weigh their utterances, regarding the evidence, in the exquisitely balanced scales sometimes employed by ingenious counsel, to discover whether too much or too little has been said, few charges would stand the test. The only safe course would be to read the whole evidence word for word to the jury, or else carefully avoid mentioning it at all. Wickham, J., in Walton v. Caldwell, 5 Pa. Superior Ct. 148.</p>