Bond v. Bond

• Decision Date: 30 June 1875
• Citation: Bond v. Bond, 73 N.C. 67 (N.C. 1875)
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: GEO. S. P. BOND and wife v. W. E. BOND, Ex'r. of A. W. MEBANE.

73 N.C. 67

GEO. S. P. BOND and wife

v.W. E. BOND, Ex'r. of A. W. MEBANE.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June Term, 1875.

*1 Where an instrument is produced and read as evidence by one party, the whole is to be read, if the adversary require it.

This was a CIVIL ACTION brought to recover the value of a lot of brandy, tried at the Spring Term, 1874, of BERTIE Superior Court, before his Honor, Judge Albertson.

On the trial before, it appeared that the wife of the male plaintiff, then Mrs. Shields, delivered in February, 1863, to a negro wagon driver, belonging at the time to the testator of the defendant, eighty-five gallons of apple brandy, for which she charged $5 per gallon.

The plaintiffs then offered in evidence, under the instructions hereinafter noticed, the following account and note, proved to be in the hand writing of the testator of the defendant, viz:

“MRS. SHIELDS,

To A. W. MEBANE.

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
                ¦1866.                    ¦                                ¦    ¦
                +-------------------------+--------------------------------+----¦
                ¦Feb. 3.                  ¦To 12 yards Mohair plaids, @ 40c¦4 80¦
                +-------------------------+--------------------------------+----¦
                ¦To 8 yards Calico, @ 30c ¦2 40                            ¦    ¦
                +-------------------------+--------------------------------+----¦
                ¦To 10 yards Cotton, @ 40c¦4 00                            ¦    ¦
                +-------------------------+--------------------------------+----¦
                ¦$11 20                   ¦                                ¦    ¦
                +---------------------------------------------------------------+
                

I think you charge too much for your brandy. I think $3 is a large price for it.

Yours respectfully,

A. W. MEBANE.”

Of this the plaintiff offered to read the date; omit, and not offer in evidence the account and its items, and to read the note concerning the price of the brandy. To this, the defendant objected, and insisted that the whole paper, if any, must be offered in evidence. His Honor overruled defendant's objection, and permitted the plaintiff to read that portion of the paper before alluded to, and to omit the balance; at the same time informing the defendant, that he was at liberty to read the omitted part of the paper to the jury, but by doing so, he would make it his evidence. Defendant excepted.

The defendant offered other objections to the plaintiff's recovery, which, not being considered in this Court, are needless to mention.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. Judgment and appeal by defendant.

D. C. & P. H. Winston, for appellant .

W. W. Peebles, contra .

BYNUM, J.

The defendant objected to the reading in evidence against him, a part of...