Oath In Litem

An oath which, in the civil law, was deferred to the complainant as to the value of the thing in dispute, on failure of other proof, particularly when there was a fraud on the part of the defendant, and he suppressed proof in his possession. See Greenl. Ev. § 348; Tait, Ev. 280; 1 Vern. 207; 1 Eq. Gas. Abr. 229; 1 Me. 27; 1 Yeates (Pa.) 34; 12 Viner, Abr. 24.

An oath which in the civil law was deferred to the complainant as to the value of the thing in dispute, on failure of other proof, particularly when there was a fraud on the part of the defendant and he suppressed proof in his possession. See Greenl. Ev. § 348; 1 Eq. Cas. Abr. 229; Herman v. Drinkwater, 1 Greenl. (Me.) 27; Sneider v. Geiss, 1 Yeates (Pa.) 34. In general, the oath of the party cannot, by the common law, be received to establish his claim, but is admitted in two classes of cases: first, where it has been already proved that the party against whom it is offered has been guilty of some fraud or other tortious or unwarrantable act of intermeddling with the complainant’s goods, and no other evidence can be had of the amount of damages. See Smiley v. Dewey, 17 Ohio, 13(1; as, for example, where a trunk of goods was delivered to a shipmaster at one port to be carried to another, and on the passage he broke the trunk open and rifled it of its contents, in an action by the owners of the goods again-4 the shipmaster, the facts above mentioned having been proved aliunde, the plaintiff was held a competent witness to testify as to the contents of the trunk; Herman v. Drinkwater, 1 Greenl. (Me.) 27. And see Clark v. Spence, 10 Watts (Pa.) 333; 1 Greenl. Ev. § 348. Second, the oath in litem is also admitted on the ground of public policy where it is deemed essential to the purposes of justice; Tnyloe v. Higgs, 1 Pet. (TJ. S.) 590, 7 L. Ed. 275; G Mood. 137. But this oath is admitted only on the ground of necessity. An example may he mentioned of a case where a statute can receive no execution unless the party interested be admitted as a witness; U. S. v. Murphy, 10 Pet. (TJ. S.) 203, 10 L. Ed. 937. Parties in interest are now everywhere, and in most cases, permitted to testify.

In the civil law. An oath permitted to be taken by the plnintiff, for the purpose of proving the value of the subject-matter in controversy, when there was no other evidence on that point, or when the defendant fraudulently suppressed evidence which might have been available.

Defined under Oath in Black's Law Dictionary.

in the civil law, is that which was deferred to the complainant as to the value of the thing in dispute on failure of other proof, particularly when there was a fraud on the part of the defendant, and he suppressed proof in his possession.