Selover v. Rexford's Executor

• Decision Date: 15 May 1866
• Citation: 52 Pa. 308
• Parties: Selover to the use of Barrows' Administrator <I>versus</I> Rexford's Executor.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 308

52 Pa. 308

Selover to the use of Barrows' Administrator versus Rexford's Executor.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

May 15, 1866.

ERROR to the Court of Common Pleas of Tioga county.

A. P. Cone, for plaintiff in error.—On the question of Yeomans' competency: Wakely v. Hart, 6 Binn. 319; Cornog v. Abraham, 1 Yeates 84; Thomas v. Brady, 10 Barr 167; Taylor v. Gitt, Id. 428; Philips v. Philips, 8 Watts 198; Hays v. Grier, 4 Binn. 83; Lewis v. Manly, 2 Yeates 200; Fernsler v. Carlin, 3 S. & R. 132; McCreedy v. Schuylkill Navigation Co., 3 Wh. 424; Irvine v. Lumbermen's Bank, 2 W. & S. 190; Scott v. Wells, 6 Id. 369; Riddle v. Dixon, 2 Barr 374; Potter v. Bird, 4 Watts 15; Nessly v. Swearingen, Add. 144; Hart v. Hutner, 3 Rawle 407; Martin v. Jones, 6 Barr 82; Gordon v. Bowers, 4 Harris 230; Ludlow v. Union Insurance Co., 2 S. & R. 119; Hays v. Gudykunst, 1 Jones 224; McDowell v. Simpson, 3 Watts 135; Brown v. Downing, 4 S. & R. 494; Struthers v. Kendall, 5 Wright 214.

C. H. Seymour, for defendant in error, cited Post v. Avery, 5 W. & S. 510; Clover v. Painter, 2 Barr 46; Muirhead v. Kirkpatrick, Id. 425; Armstrong v. Graham, 4 Id. 142; Purdy v. Dedrick, 2 Phila. Rep. 426; Anderson v. Young, 9 Harris 443.

The opinion of the court was delivered, May 15th 1866, by WOODWARD, C. J.

On the 14th of December 1846, Isaac Selover recovered a judgment against Samuel Rexford in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which he assigned, on the 8th day of September 1851, to Aaron Barrows, whose administrator brought the present suit to recover the amount of the judgment. The defence was that the judgment had been paid to Selover, about the 9th of February 1847, by one Henry P. Yeomans, at the instance and for the benefit of Rexford. Richard Steele proved this payment by Yeomans, and swore that the judgment was to be satisfied or assigned as he (Yeomans) might direct.

Nathaniel Mann testified to a transaction at his house in the city of New York on the 3d of October 1847, between Rexford and Yeomans, in which Rexford conveyed to Yeomans a tract of land in Jackson township, Tioga county, and Yeomans agreed to pay notes amounting to about $3800, in the hands of Selover and Steele, as part payment for the land. The agreement, said this witness, had been made before, and they called my attention to it as a witness. I made a memorandum of it at the time, and read it over to them.

The 1st error assigned, is that the court charged the jury that this memorandum corroborates the recollection of the witness, in regard to the dates and terms of the arrangement.

We can see no force whatever in this assignment. The credibility of both Steele and Mann, and the prospect and effect...