State v. Lynde

• Citation: 77 Me. 561,1 A. 687
• Parties: STATE v. LYNDE.
• Decision Date: 09 December 1885
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

1 A. 687

77 Me. 561

STATE

v. LYNDE.

SUPREME COURT OF MAINE.

Filed December 9, 1885.

Indictment for keeping a liquor nuisance. The court admitted a copy of the record of the collector of internal revenue, showing that defendant had a license as retail liquor dealer. This copy was made and certified by a clerk in the office of the collector, and the clerk was examined as a witness on the stand, and swore that the copy was correct and true. Defendant excepted.

True P. Pierce, Co. Atty., for the State.

D. N. Mortland and J. N. Hanley, for defendant.

PETERS, C. J. The original record of payments for licenses, kept in the office of the collector of internal revenue, would have been proper evidence; and a copy of the same, certified by the collector himself, would have been. A copy of the record authenticated merely by a clerk in the collector's office, an unofficial person, standing without other proof, would be neither sufficient nor admissible. But it was in this case supported by the testimony of the clerk as a witness, who swears that he personally examined the record and made a true copy. The copy, sustained by his oath, was admissible, if the mode of proof styled "Sworn Copies" or "Examined Copies" is allowable by the practice in this state. State v. Gorham, 65 Me. 270.

Examined copies are, in England, resorted to as the most usual mode of proving records. Whart. Ev. § 94. The mode is explained and commended in Best's work on Evidence, (section 486.) It seems to have prevailed in many of the states, including Pennsylvania and New York. It was at an early date adopted in some of the federal circuit courts. U. S. v. Johns, 4 Dall. 412. It is not an unknown mode of proof in New England. It is spoken of as a well-settled doctrine in New Hampshire. Whitehouse v. Bickford, 29 N. H. 471. In Spaulding v. Vincent, 24 Vt. 501, it is said: "The more usual method" of proving a discharge in a foreign court of bankruptcy "is a sworn copy." Mr. Greenleaf says, (1 Greenl. Ev. § 485:) "Where the proof is by copy, an examined copy, duly made and sworn to by any competent witness, is always admissible." In Atwood v. Winterport, 60 Me. 250, the rule is casually approved; Appleton, C. J., there saying, while speaking of the mode of proving an army record: "A sworn copy is admissible, or a copy certified by the proper certifying officer."

Why not admissible? The evidence is as satisfactory, certainly, as a certified copy. In the latter case we depend upon the honor...