Kiern v. Ainsworth

• Decision Date: 18 October 1880
• Citation: Kiern v. Ainsworth, 95 Pa. 310 (Pa. 1880)
• Parties: Kiern <I>versus</I> Ainsworth.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

95 Pa. 310

Kiern versus Ainsworth.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

October 4, 1880.

October 18, 1880.

October 4th 1880.

Before SHARSWOOD, C. J., MERCUR, GORDON, PAXSON, TRUNKEY, STERRETT and GREEN, JJ.

Error to the Court of Common Pleas, No. 1, of Allegheny county: Of October and November Term 1880, No. 2.

Robert Pollock, for plaintiff in error.—The entire claim of the plaintiff below was embraced in the issue in the crim. con. case, and the verdict and judgment in that case are conclusive in all matters embraced therein. If the defendant in the crim. con. case did not give the judgment notes in evidence on the trial, then he is not estopped from setting up the record of that case in bar in a future trial for the same cause of action, and he offered to prove this by a witness present. It cannot be urged that because the notes were offered in evidence on behalf of the plaintiff in that case, to show that the defendant acknowledged his guilt, that therefore the defendant, Kiern, was estopped from setting up the record of that case as a bar in the note cases. Yet in this one proposition lies this whole case.

J. S. Ferguson, for defendant in error.—In the trial of this case we claimed no technical estoppel against the defendant; but we did claim, that as he had in open court solemnly affirmed his liability upon the note in suit, and had received the full benefit of that affirmation upon his own showing, and neither gave nor attempted to give any evidence to show that he was not liable, the plaintiff, under all the evidence, was entitled to...