Page:United States Reports, Volume 1.djvu/27

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16
Cases ruled and adjudged in the

1767.

For the Plaintiffs it was anſwered, that in 2 Peere Williams 75. and many other caſes, it was ſettled that all Acts of Parliament made before the Settlement of the Colony extend, unleſs local in their Nature; that under this rule the Statute of Wills, Statute of Uſes, and many other Statutes, were always held to extend; and that the reaſon of this Act extended as well as any other. That as to this Caſe not being within the Act, the preſumption ſpoken of was not juſtified by the Act itſelf, which extended to every Caſe—2d. Though the Witneſſes ſwear only to forty-four Years poſſeſſion, yet after ſuch a length of time it ſhould be preſumed the poſſeſſion had been from the Date of the Deed to Chambers, which was in 1685.—3d. The Rights of Femes Covert are not ſaved in this Act (except such Femes Covert as were in being at the time of making the Act) and Poſſeſſion was out of Tucker’s Wife from the time of her Huſband’s Deed to Chambers.—As to the laſt Point it was ſaid, that it was picked up at the Bar, and objected to at the Time of tendering the Deed; that it did not ſtrictly go to the title, but was only a claim of two old Women for their Lives, which the Jury might take notice of, it they pleaſed, by leſſening the Damages.

The Court were unanimous and clear in their Opinion, that the Act of 32 H. 8. did extend to this Province, and gave it in charge to the Jury accordingly.[1]

The Verdict of the Jury was unconformable to this opinion, by their finding for the Plaintiffs, having made an allowance for the Lives of the Women in the Damages.

April Term, 1768.

William Allen, Chief Juſtice.
John Lawrence, Juſtices.
Thomas Willing,

Riche and Richards verſus Broadfield.

An Account of Sales of an Adventure ſhipt to New-York, ſaid to be ſigned by the Factor, offered in evidence to prove a loſs on the Goods. Objected, that the Factor himſelf ought to have been brought to give evidence, viva voce, or at leaſt the account ſhould have been proved by him, and certified under the City Seal of New-York, agreeably, to the directions of the act of parliament with reward to the proving Colony debts in England.–Anſwered, That this being a Mercantile Tranſaction, ſuch Evidence as Merchants uſusally admit as prooſs of a foreign Tranſaction, ſhould be received here.
  1. See S. P. Morris’s verſus Vanderen Poſt.
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