Hensley v. Tarpey (1857) · DecisionDepot

Hensley v. Tarpey

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Supreme Court Jul 1, 1857Published

Before: Murray

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Holding. The court held that secondary evidence of official documents is inadmissible without a proper predicate, such as an affidavit proving that the original documents could not be removed from federal files.

Issues

Whether a sufficient predicate was laid for the introduction of secondary evidence of original documents.
Whether state courts must take judicial notice of federal departmental rules or the rules of the Board of Land Commissioners.

Disposition. Affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“no sufficient predicate was laid for the introduction of certified copies of the original grant and other documents, and the evidence being only secondary, was properly rejected.”

“The Courts of this State are not bound to take official notice of the rules adopted for the regulation of the various departments of the federal government”

Synopsis

Certified copies of grants made by the Surveyor-General of the United States, are inadmissible in evidence, unless the absence of the originals is accounted for.

An affidavit, showing that the Surveyor-General has adopted a rule, refusing to allow the originals to be taken from the files, is a sufficient predicate.

Murray, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court—Burnett, J., and Terry, J., concurring.

On the trial of this cause in the Court below, no sufficient predicate was laid for the introduction of certified copies of the original grant and other documents, and the evidence being only secondary, was properly rejected.

The Courts of this State are not bound to take official notice of the rules adopted for the regulation of the various departments of the federal government, or those established by the Board of Land Commissioners or Surveyor-General of the United States for California. If these officers have adopted a rule, refusing to allow original papers to be taken from the the files, that fact should have been shown by affidavit, before evidence of their contents could be admitted.

Judgment affirmed.

Hensley v. Tarpey

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