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1 Johns. Cas. 145

Ensign v. Webster

New York Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1799

New York Supreme Court · decided 1799-10-15

This was an action of assumpsit for goods sold and delivered. The declaration contained also a count upon an insimul computassent. The defendant pleaded non-assumpsit and payment, with notice of a set-off.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1799-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently July 1933

1 district · 9 state decisions

20179918001810182018301840185018601870188018901900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Lansing, Ch. J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court. On the trial I overruled this evidence, on the principle that the plaintiff having deliberately acknowledged in writing, on the 14th July, 1798, that all the accounts respecting the paper manufactory, subsisting between him and the defendants, had been fully satisfied and paid, he ought not to be permitted to destroy the effect of that acknowledgment by parol proof.

¶2My reflections on the subject since, have convinced me that I was not correct in that opinion. A mere receipt for money is not within the rule which prohibits a party from giving evidence by parol, or essentially to vary a written agreement. The application of the rule to this extent would prevent the correction of any mistake, however apparent, and in many cases operate unjustly.

¶3We are, therefore, of -opinion, that the evidence ought to *177have been admitted, and that a new trial be awarded. (See 2 Term. 366. 5 Vezey, jun. 87.) (a)

¶4Rule granted.

¶5Cowen & Hill’s Notes to Phil. Ev. 214, 215. Trisler v. Williamson, 4 Harris & McHenry, 219. Maze v. Miller, 1 Wash. C. C. R. 328. Burnap v. Partridge, 3 Vermont R. 144. Wright v. Wright, 2 M’Cord Ch. R. 192, 205. House v. Law, 2 Johns. R. 378. MKinstry v. Pearsall, 3 id, 319. Tobey v. Barber, 5 id. 68. Putnam v. Lewis, 8 id. 389. Johnson v. Weed, 9 id. 310. Tucker v. Maxwell, 11 Mass. R. 143.

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