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2 Watts & Serg. 505

Castor v. Bavington

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided December 15, 1841

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1841-12-15

On the trial, the counsel for Bavington, the plaintiff, opened his case by stating that Bavington claimed the price of certain trees and logs sold by him to Castor, the defendant, upon which, after admitting a credit of $15.18, he claimed a balance, amounting with interest to $93; and then called a witness, who testified, “ I was one of the arbitrators between the parties while this suit was before the justice.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently January 1881

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1841-12-15

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Per Curiam.

¶1It is impossible to distinguish the principle of this case from that of Ellmaker v. Buckley, in which it was ruled that a party shall not introduce his case to the jury through a cross-examination of his adversary’s witnesses. Here the attempt was plainly to cross-examine to matter entirely new, with a view, not to test the truth of the witness as to what he had said-&emdash;the legitimate end of a cross-examination&emdash;but to lay his defence before the jury untrammelled by the rules of a direct examination; and this certainly cannot be done. The questions were, therefore, properly suppressed.

¶2Judgment affirmed.

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