Griffin v. State
| Decision Date | 13 February 1901 |
| Citation | 29 So. 783,129 Ala. 92 |
| Parties | GRIFFIN v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from circuit court, Dale county; A. A. Evans, Judge.
Clara Griffin was convicted of assault with intent to kill, and appeals. Affirmed.
The evidence for the state tended to show that the person alleged to have been assaulted went to the house of the defendant with a constable, to assist him in making the levy of a writ of detinue upon a stove which was in the defendant's house, and which said Speller had sued for in an action of detinue, and that in attempting to take possession of the stove the assault was made by the defendant on said Speller. These facts were testified to both by said Speller and the constable. Objection was made to the declaration of each of the witnesses to the fact that there was a writ of detinue, upon the ground that the writ was the best evidence, and the fact that it was not produced, and no reason had been given for its absence. This objection was overruled, and the defendant duly excepted. This ruling is the only question presented for review on the present appeal.
Chas. G. Brown, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Where a written instrument is only a collateral incident to the matter in issue, and its existence, rather than its contents, is the matter desired to be proved, the rule which in general requires the production of the writing, as the best evidence of its contents, is not applicable. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 89; Allen v. State, 79 Ala. 34. Of this class were the writs in attachment and detinue mentioned in testimony adduced by the state. Here the question was not of the authority of the officer, for the defendant was not charged with unlawfully resisting such authority. It was merely whether the defendant was guilty of an assault with intent to murder,-an offense involving malice and vicious acts, on which those writs had no direct connection or bearing. There is no error in the record. Judgment affirmed.
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