Best Evidence
Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
Black's Law Dictionary
Primary evidence, as distinguished from secondary; original, as distinguished from substitutionary; the best and highest evidence of which the nature of the case ls susceptible. A written instrument is itself always regarded as the primary or best possible evidence of its existence and contents; a copy or the recollection of a witness, would be secondary evidence.
State v. McDonald, 65 Me. 467; Elliott v. Van Buren, 33 Mich. 53, 20 Am. Rep. 668; Scett v. State, 3 Tex. App. 104; Gray v. Pentland, 2 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 34; U. S. Sugar Refinery v. Allis Ch, 56 Fed. 786, 6 C. O. A. 121; Manhattan Malting Ch v. Sweteland, 14 Mont 269, 36 Pan. 84.