Young v. Brady

Vanclief, C. Action of assumpsit for money alleged to have been loaned by plaintiff to defendant. Judgment for defendant, from which, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial, the plaintiff brings this appeal.

[129]The evidence for plaintiff tends to prove money paid or expended for the defendant, rather than money loaned; but no point is made on this ground. Whether the money had been paid for the defendant, or at his request, and whether he had promised to repay it, were the principal questions contested at the trial. The defendant testified that no money had been paid or expended by plaintiff for him, or at his request. On cross-examination, he testified that he was at plaintiff’s house probably half a dozen times while he was building a house on a piece of public land, which he had entered as a pre-emptioner, in the vicinity of plaintiff’s residence, and that he was at plaintiff’s house on the evening after he entered the land. He was then asked the following question: —

“ Do you recollect having any conversation there with Mr. Young (plaintiff), in the presence of Miss Green, during this time, in reference to how thankful you were that he had secured this claim (the pre-emption claim) for you, and that you were going to reimburse him as soon as you could? A. No, sir; never had such a conversation.”

The plaintiff called Miss Green in rebuttal, who testified that she had lived with plaintiff since she was a child, and recollected the time defendant took possession of the land; that she had heard conversations between plaintiff and defendant at plaintiff’s house, at different times, within ten days after defendant took possession of the land, about that land, or the purchase of land. She was then asked whether, at any of those'times, she heard a conversation between them “in reference to repaying Mr. Young the money Young had advanced .to Mrs. Barton, .... wherein the defendant stated that he was exceedingly thankful to Mr. Young for obtaining for him the land, and that he would endeavor to pay him the money which plaintiff had paid to Mrs. Barton as soon as he possibly could,—at least, by the time he would make his proof upon the land”; and asking the witness to confine herself “ to the conversation in reference to [130]