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25 Minn. 431

Austin v. Robertson

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided January 23, 1879

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1879-01-23

Appeal by defendant from an order of the district court for Chippewa and Lac qui Parle counties. Brown, J., presiding, refusing a new trial.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-01-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently December 1922

11 state decisions

60187918801890190019101920decided

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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Gilfillan, C. J.

¶1There was sufficient evidence to justify the verdict.

¶2The action being against defendant, for talcing, as sheriff, plaintiff’s wheat, in the possession of his agent, A. A. Austin, upon an execution against J. A. Austin, the defendant offered to prove “what J. A. Austin said to him, while he was taking the wheat, in the presence of A. A. Austin, as to the pos*432session and control of the wheat.” Upon objection by plaintiff, no ground being stated, this was excluded.

¶3.When a party makes an offer of testimony, the offer must-be sufficiently full to enable the court to see that the testimony offered is material. If it does not appear to be material, the court is not bound to receive it, even though the opposite party do not object. In other words, a trial court need not, even though the parties consent to it, spend its-time listening to testimony not affecting the controversy before-it. The testimony offered might or might not be material, depending on what it was that J. A. Austin said. What he-said the offer does not indicate, and it therefore fails to show the testimony material.

¶4Order affirmed.

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