Walker v. Collins

• Decision Date: 02 May 1889
• Citation: Walker v. Collins, 61 Vt. 542, 17 A. 744 (Vt. 1889)
• Parties: GEORGE S. WALKER v. ERASTUS COLLINS, ET AL
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

17 A. 744

61 Vt. 542

GEORGE S. WALKER v. ERASTUS COLLINS, ET AL

Supreme Court of Vermont

May 2, 1889

FEBRUARY TERM, 1889

Judgment affirmed.

J.J Wilson, for the defendants.

OPINION

TAFT

I. The defendants complain that a witness was not permitted to answer the question, "whether he had ever seen a plan or field-book, which authorized him to insert a strip of land between ranges seven and eight, " in the town of Rochester. The court excluded the question for that the plan or field-book was the best evidence of its contents. There was no error in excluding the question; it had already been answered in favor of the defendants. The witness had stated that he had never found anything that authorized him to lay out a strip between the ranges named. If he had never found anything that warranted it, it was in substance saying that he had never found a plan or field-book authorizing it. There was no reversible error, even if the ground assumed by the court was unsound, which is a point we do not decide; it was the repetition of a question already answered.

II. It was claimed that the trespass was committed upon the Knapp strip of land, which the plaintiff insisted was between the seventh and eighth ranges of lots. The defendants' evidence tended to show there was no such strip, and they requested the court to charge that if the jury so found, the verdict be for the defendants, on account of the misdescription of the locus in quo. It related to that branch of the case in which the plaintiff claimed to recover, having title to the land. The request was complied with. The jury were...