Gordon v. Searing

<p>Appeal from the District Court of the Twelfth Judicial District, City and County of San Francisco.</p> <p>Gordon sued in the Court below in ejectment for the possession of certain premises in the city of San Francisco, and relied, on the trial thereof, upon a grant made by T. M. Leavenworth, on the twenty-third of December, 1848, to one George E. Emmons, from whom he derived his title by a series of mesne conveyances.</p> <p>The original grant was not produced ,• but as a predicate for the admission of a certified copy of the grant, the plaintiff himself was sworn, who testified that he had inquired of all the agents of Emmons, the original grantee, for the grant, and had also searched their papers for the purpose of finding it, and that he had failed to discover the grant; that Emmons, the original grantee, was then at Rio Janeiro, in South America, and had not been in the State for several years. Plaintiff’s counsel then introduced the deposition of T. M. Leavenworth, who testified that he had granted the premises in dispute, bn the twenty-third of December, 1848, to George E. Emmons, who shortly afterwards left the State, and had never returned. On being shown the certified copy, he testified to its correctness, whereupon the Court below held that a sufficient predicate had been laid for the introduction of secondary evidence, and then admitted the certified copy under the exception of defendant’s counsel.</p> <p>Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appealed.</p>