Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/162/687.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 05:11:00+00:00

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This is a writ of error to obtain a reversal, of a judgment of the circuit court of the United States for the district of New Hampshire, entered on a verdict of a jury, finding the defendant guilty upon the second and seventh counts of an indictment, which alleged violations of the provisions of section 5209 of the Revised Statutes.
The indictment originally consisted of 10 counts. A demurrer to counts 3, 5, and 8 was sustained. Upon the trial, at the close of the evidence for the prosecution, counts 4, 6, 9, and 10 were withdrawn from the consideration of the jury, and the case was submitted to them on counts 1, 2, and 7. Counts 1 and 2 covered the same transaction; count 1 charging an embezzlement, while count 2 charged an unlawful abstraction of the same property.
The second count charged the defendant, as president of the 'National Granite State Bank,' with having, on July 26, 1893, at Exeter, N. H., unlawfully abstracted and converted to his own use certain described bonds and obligations, the property of said association.
The seventh count charged that the defendant, while president as aforesaid and at the place aforesaid, did, between January 1, 1893, and July 15, 1893, 'unlawfully and willfully, and without [162 U.S. 687, 689] the knowledge and consent of said association, and with intent to injure and defraud said association, abstract and convert to his own use the moneys, funds, and credits of the property of said association, to wit, forty thousand dollars of the moneys, funds, and credits of said association, a more particular description of which moneys, funds, and credits is to the said jurors unknown.' Before the trial, a statement of the items upon which the government intended to rely for a conviction under the seventh count was furnished, by the district attorney, to counsel for the accused; and the court limited the evidence with reference to that count to matters embraced in the list. The specification referred to 15 sums, each of which was stated to have been drawn by the accused upon checks signed by him, in the name of the bank as its president, and made payable to the order of the American Loan & Trust Company of Boston, or to the order of H. N. Smith, on the National Bank of Redemption, a banking institution located and doing business at Boston. T e checks were delivered by the defendant to the payees thereof in Boston, in return 'for cash or funds in the form of checks or drafts' handed to him in Boston, and the checks were paid by the Boston bank on which they were drawn.
The errors assigned are 18 in number. In addition, a second writ of error was sued out, and on this writ errors were assigned relating solely to the validity of the sentence imposed. This second writ was separately docketed and numbered in this court. We are relieved from considering the legality of this second writ, as well as the soundness of the errors thereon assigned, as all the matters complained of thereon were abandoned on the hearing.
Of the 18 assignments of error, 4 (Nos. 7, 8, 11, and 18) are not pressed by counsel, and need not be reviewed. [162 U.S. 687, 690] Ten assignments (Nos. 1 to 6 and 13 to 16) affect both of the counts upon which conviction was had, and relate to an asserted variance between the name of the bank alleged in the indictment to have been defrauded and the name established by the proof. Assignment No. 9 aftects the second count alone, and alleges error in permitting a witness for the prosecution, upon his direct examination, to refresh his memory in a manner claimed to be illegal. Assignment No. 10 alleges error in the sustaining of objections to questions as to the amount of stock of the bank owned by the defendant during the period when the alleged unlawful acts referred to in the seventh count were committed; while assignments Nos. 12 and 17 attack the jurisdiction of the court over the offense set forth in the seventh count.
The evidence offered proved that the authorized name of the bank was the 'National Granite State Bank of Exeter,' the omission of the words 'of Exeter' being, therefore, the variance relied on. The court held that this was not material if the bank carried on its business and was as well known by the one name as the other.
The text writers state the rule to be that, where the name of a third person is used in an indictment, it must be proved as laid. Whart. Cr. Ev . 102a; 1 Bish. Cr. Proc. 488, subd. 3; Id. 667, subd. 3. Many authorities illustrating this rule are referred to in the brief of counsel. We [162 U.S. 687, 691] notice only the two cases principally relied on, to wit, McGary v. People, 45 N. Y. 153, and Sykes v. People, 132 Ill. 32, 23 N. E. 391. Both of these cases are in conflict with Com. v. Jacobs, 152 Mass. 276, 25 N. E. 463, in which last case the rule is laid down as declared by the trial court in the case at bar. However, the case now before us is distinguishable from that presented in McGary v. People and Sykes v. People, supra, from the fact that the variance relied on in those cases was in an integral part of the name proper, while here it consists simply in the omission of the words 'of Exeter,' which, while a part of the name, would be commonly understood as referring only to the place of business of the corporation. A case precisely in point is Roger v. State, 90 Ga. 463, where a railroad company was referred to in an indictment by the name under which it usually transacted business; and it was held, in a well- reasoned opinion, that the omission of the words 'of Georgia,' at the close of the designated name of the company, was not a fatal variance.
In the indictment at bar, the accused was charged as president of the bank, and it was alleged that the institution carried on business at Exeter. It is impossible, therefore, to suppose that the omission of the words 'of Exeter' could have in any way misled the defendant, or failed to convey to his mind what bank was intended to be referred to. It is manifest, therefore, that the omission could not have operated to his prejudice. These views dispose of assignments from 1 to 6.
2. Error averred to have been committed by the court in permitting the prosecution to refresh the memory of a witness, called by it, by reference to certain testimony previously given by the witness before the grand jury.
'Q. Did he ever, at any time, tell you what he had done with these bonds?
'A. Not that I now recollect.
'Mr. Branch: I propose to ask this witness a leading question, because I am taken by surprise at his answer. I have his testimony before the grand jury, and I wish to ask him if he did not testify to certain things before the grand jury.
'The Court: You may do that.
'Mr. Streeter: To that I object and except.
'The Court: It is a matter of discretion with the court to allow counsel on either side who say they are surprised to ask such question. It is not a matter of exception.
'By Mr. Branch: Q. (referring to minutes, and apparently reading for the purpose of putting the question). Do you now recollect that you testified before the grand jury that, when you discovered those bonds were gone, you went to Boston, and learned that Mr. Putnam had them, and that he acknowledged to you he had those bonds on the 3d day of August? Did you not so testify before the grand jury?
'A. If it is a matter of record, I suppose that it is so. Mr. Putnam done considerable of the business by letters.
'Q. I am asking if you did not so testify before the grand jury?
'A. If it is a matter of record, I do not dispute the record.
'Q. Do you not recollect that fact that you asked him what he had done with them?
'Mr. Streeter: I still object and except to this, because it is the record taken before the grand jury, and should not be introduced here. It is improper, and I object to it.
'The Court: I do not think you ought to say it is improper after the court has ruled that it is.
'Mr. Streeter: I beg your honor's pardon. I did not understand that you had ruled on this point.
'The Court: It is a thing often done, and, when counsel say [162 U.S. 687, 693] they are surprised by the way a witness recollects a thing, it is within the discretion of the court to allow counsel to direct the attention of the witness to something which may refresh his recollection.
'By the Court: Q. Do you recollect this conversation in view of your attention being now called to it?
'A. I do not recall distinctly where I had that interview, but I think it must have been at the station at Exeter.
'Q. It is not a question of where it must have been, but whether you recall it now.
'By Mr. Branch: Q. Let me refresh your recollection a little further. Did you testify before the grand jury that you said to him something about the bond, and he said, 'Mr. Dorr, I will state to you I am not going away'?
'A. Yes, sir; I did.
'Mr. Streeter: I object to the reading here before this tribunal of the records taken before the grand jury,-records of the grand jury room; and I renew the objection I took when my brother first put it in, two or three minutes ago. I renew the objection I then took to the production of grand jury records before this court.
'Mr. Branch: I am not.
'The Court: It is competent.
'Q. And did he not say, 'I will get the bonds for you as soon as I can'?
'A. Yes; I can assent to that.
'The Court: It must be understood that the putting into the question a conversation is merely done for the purpose of directing the witness' attention to the matter, and that it is not in, unless the witness remembers the conversation and states it here.
'Mr. Streeter: If your honor will pardon me, my exception to its being read is in the record, and I do not want to be deprived of that.
'The Court: That is all right.' [162 U.S. 687, 694] Many objections are pressed upon our attention which are alleged properly to arise from the exceptions which were taken during the proceedings just quoted, but which we deem either unfounded or not reserved by the exception as taken.
It is settled that a trial court can, in its discretion, permit, upon direct examination, a leading question to be asked, when the counsel conducting the examination is surprised by the statements of the witness. St. Clair v. U. S., 154 U.S. 134, 150 , 14 S. Sup. Ct. 1002. It is also clear that, where a memorandum or writing is presented to a witness for the purpose of refreshing his memory, it must either have been made by the witness or under his direction, or he must be connected with it in such a way as to make it competent for the purpose for which it is proposed to use it. But here the objection below did not address itself to the fact that the minutes of the testimony taken before the grand jury had not been properly authenticated, or that they had not been reduced to writing in the presence of the witness, or read over or examined by him at the time. The exception taken, therefore, reserves none of these questions. We shall hence, in considering the matter, assume that in these particulars the use of the testimony taken before the grand jury to refresh memory was not objectionable.
The very essence, however, of the right to thus refresh the memory of the witness is that the matter used for that purpose be contemporaneous with the occurrences as to which the witness is called upon to testify. Indeed, the rule which allows a witness to refresh his memory by writings or memoranda is founded solely on the reason that the law presupposes that the matters used for the purpose were reduced to writing so shortly after the occurrence, when the facts were fresh in the mind of the witness, that he can with safety be allowed to re ur to them in order to remove any weakening of memory on his part, which may have supervened from lapse of time.
'Memoranda are not competent evidence by reason of having been made in the regular course of business, unless contemporaneous with the transaction to which they relate. Nicholls v. Webb, 8 Wheat. 326, 337; Insurance Co. v. Weide, 9 Wall. 677, 14 Wall. 375; Chaffee v. U. S., 18 Wall. 576.
In appreciating what length of time after the occrurrence may be considered as 'contemporaneous,' as 'shortly after the time of the transaction,' or 'while fresh in his recollection,' courts have differed somewhat, depending, of course, upon the facts of each particular case.
In Wood v. Cooper, 1 Car. & K. 646, a witness was allowed to look at his examination before commissioners in bankruptcy, signed by him, given within a fortnight of the time of the happening of certain occurrences, and when the facts were fresh in his memory. So, in State v. Colwell, 3 R. I. 132, a witness was allowed to refer to a memorandum made a day or two after a previous trial, when an interval of about eight days had elapsed from the time when the occurrences transpired concerning which the witness gave testimony. In Billingslea v. State, 85 Ala. 323, 5 South. 137, it was held proper to allow a witness to refresh his recollection by resort to the minutes of statements made to a grand jury within a week after the occurrence about which he was being interrogated. In Insurance Co. v. Evans, 15 Md. 54, it was held that a witness, who, five months agter the occurrence of certain facts, and at the request of a party interested, made a statement in writing, and swore to it, could not be allowed to testify to his belief in its correctness.
In the case at bar, the indictment was found at the December term, 1893, of the district court, and the testimony used to refresh the memory of the witness was given at that time before the grand jury. The conversations to which the testimony of the witness, given before the grand jury, related, transpired on the 3d of the previous August. The effort, therefore, was to refresh the memory of the witness as to an interview which had taken place in August, 1893, by referring to his testimony given in December, 1893; in other words, by the use of testimony given by the witness more than four months after the occurrence. We think it clear that testimony given after this lapse of time was not contemporaneous, and that it would not support a reasonable probability that [162 U.S. 687, 697] the memory of the witness, if impaired at the time of the trial, was not equally so when his testimony on the prior occasion was committed to writing.
In conflict with the well-settled rule to which we have just referred, there are some adjudications of the courts of last resort of several states (noted in the margin of this opinion)1 holding that there exists an exception to the general rule which restricts the right to refresh memory to contempo aneous memoranda or writing. This exception is said to arise when a party is surprised by the unexpectedly adverse testimony of his own witness, in which case he may, for the purpose of refreshing the memory of the witness, be permitted to ask him as to any prior statements, whether oral or written, without reference to their contemporaneousness. The error of this conclusion, as we shall hereafter demonstrate, originally arose from a misconception of the doctrine laid down in Wright v. Beckett or Melhuish v. Collier, infra, and has been continued by merely following this first departure from correct principles. And this confusion of thought and misunderstanding of those cases seems to have operated upon the mind of the trial court, for it said: 'It is a thing often done, and, when counsel say they are surprised by the way a witness recollects a thing, it is within the discretion of the court to allow counsel to direct the attention of the witness to something which may refresh his recollection.' But the right of counsel to refresh the memory of a witness in no way depends on the surprise which may have been created by the testimony of the witness. The right to refresh the memory of a witness, by proper matter, exists independently of surprise. Where a legal instrument for refreshing the memory exists, it may be availed of by the witness himself, or may be permitted to be referred to by the court without reference to the course of [162 U.S. 687, 698] the examining counsel. Surprise on the part of the examiner of a witness by the latter's unexpected adverse testimony, on direct examination, was among the elements by which it was determined that the right existed to ask a witness as to contradictory statements previously made by him, not for the purpose of refreshing his memory, but with the object of neutralizing or overthrowing his testimony; and this course was only allowed where the right to neutralize or impeach the testimony of one's own witness existed. Indeed, this doctrine of surprise was a part of the controversy as to whether one could be allowed to neutralize or contradict the testimony of his own witness under given conditions, which was long agitated, and which culminated in some of the states of the Union and in England in statutory provision on the subject.
In Wright v. Beckett, 1 Moody & R. 414, it was held by Lord Denman ( Bolland, B., dissenting), upon a review of previous cases, that, where a witness gives evidence destructive of the case which he was called to prove, the party calling him may be permitted, in order to neutralize his testimony, to interrogate the witness as to whether he had not at a previous time given an account of the transaction entirely different from that sworn to by him at the trial, and that the party may also call other witnesses to establish the fact of the making of such prior inconsistent statements.
Patterson, J., found difficulty in coming to a conclusion (page 888).
The judges, moreover, intimated a doubt as to the correctness of Lord Denman's opinion in Wright v. Beckett, in so far as it recognized the right of a party, when surprised by the testimony of his own witness, to call other witnesses to prove his contradictory statement, but followed Wright v. Beckett to the extent that it held that one might, when surprised by the testimony of his witness, ask him as to inconsistent statements, in order to neutralize his testimony, employing, however, the word 'remind' in the stead of 'neutralize.' The word 'remind,' used in Melhuish v. Collier, in its broadest sense, would certainly be susceptible of the interpretation of refreshing memory; and, if it were to receive that construction, the case would undoubt dly be authority for the proposition that one taken by surprise, by the testimony of his own witness, could refresh the memory of the witness by calling his attention to contradictory statements previously made by him, without reference to [162 U.S. 687, 701] whether such statements were or were not contemporaneous, or whether oral or written. But the context of the opinions demonstrates that the case has no such significance. The learned judges were considering, not the right of one to refresh the memory of his witnesses, but whether he could neutralize the testimony of his own witness; that is, whether a party had the right to do so as to a witness by him introduced, though the incidental effect might be to impeach his credit. The reasoning of the opinion shows that the use of the word 'remind' was intended rather as a qualification on the right to neutralize in case of surprise, which was recognized in Wright v. Beckett; and therefore it was not the purpose of the ruling in the Melhuish Case to overthrow the elementary rule of evidence which restricts refreshing the memory of a witness to contemporaneous memoranda or writing. And support for the view that the reminding of the witness spoken of in the Melhuish Case was not considered as synonymous with the right to refresh recollection is found in the fact that the judge before whom that case was first tried subsequently, in 1853, in the case of Reg. v. Williams, 6 Cox, Cr. Cas. 342, held that, where a witness for the prosecution gave a different answer on his examination in chief from that which was expected his deposition before the coroner or justice, as the case might be, might be put in his hands for the purpose of 'refreshing his memory,' and then a question from the deposition might be put to him in leading form. The court further said that, if the witness persisted in giving the same answer after his memory had been so refreshed, the question might be repeated to him from the deposition in leading form; but, when the witness answered that question, the counsel could not proceed any further.
'A party producing a witness shall not be allowed to impeach his credit by general evidence of bad character, but he may, in case the witness shall, in the opinion of the [162 U.S. 687, 702] judge, prove adverse, contradict him by other evidence, or, by leave of the judge, prove that he has made at other times a statement inconsistent with his present testimony; but, before such last-mentioned proof can be given, the circumstances of the supposed statement, sufficient to designate the particular occasion, must be mentioned to the witness, and he must be asked whether or not he has made such statement.' 17 & 18 Vict. c. 125, 22.
Clearly, the purpose of this statute was to give one a right under certain circumstances to neutralize or discredit the testimony of his own witness, and in no way to change the rule as to refreshing a witness' memory by contemporaneous writings or memoranda. This statute was, substantially, a legislative recognition of the correctness of the rule laid down in Wright v. Beckett; and the modern English cases have treated the act as applying to the power to contradict and neutralize the testimony of one's own witness when he proves adverse or hostile, and as controlling the examination of the witness himself concerning prior inconsistent statements, as well as the proof thereof by other witnesses. Faulkner v. Brine, 1 Fost & F. 254; Dear v. Knight, Id. 433.
This view of the act is also the one taken by Taylor in his treatise on Evidence. He refers to the common-law procedure act of 1854, as having settled 'the question how far a party is at liberty to discredit his own witness,' a question which he says 'for years was agitated in Westminster Hall.' 2 Tayl. Ev. 1246. Statutes similar to the English act have been passed in various states of the Union, som before and others subsequent thereto. 1 Greenl. Ev. 444, note b.
The case of Campbell v. State, 23 Ala. 444, held that a trial court had not committed error in permitting the state's attorney to inquire of a witness for the prosecution whether he had not, on the day preceding, made statements conflicting with what he had said on the trial, the avowed object of the question being to refresh the witness' memory. The ruling was rested on the authority of Wright v. Beckett, supra, and on the opinions of Greenleaf and Phillipps. But the learned court overlooked the fact that Wright v. Beckett expressly [162 U.S. 687, 703] confined the right to put the question, in order to neutralize the testimony of the witness when the party introducing him was taken by surprise, and that neither in the treatise of Greenleaf nor that of Phillipps is this right to examine a witness for the purpose of neutralizing his testimony confounded or confused with the distinct and different faculty of refreshing the memory of the witness by contemporaneous writings or memoranda. Hemmingway v. Garth, 51 Ala. 530, was placed simply upon the authority of the previous case.
In leaving this branch of the case, it is well to say that Hickory v. U. S., 151 U.S. 303 , 14 Sup. Ct. 334, referred to by the supreme court of North Dakota in George v. Triplett, 63 N. W. 891, as sustaining the exception to the general rule there announced, does not warrant the assumption. Hickory v. U. S. concerned merely the question of the right of a party, after proper foundation had been laid, to contradict his own witness, and in no way involved the right to refresh the memory without reference to the contemporaneousness of the statements, or whether they were oral or written. [162 U.S. 687, 707] Our conclusion, therefore, is that the exception to the action of the court in allowing the use made of the minutes of the grand jury was well taken, and that there was prejudicial error in this particular. Its existence, however, relates to and affects only the conviction under the second count of the indictment.
On objection being made by the government, counsel stated that his purpose was to show the relations of the accused to the bank, and his ownership of the stock, and that the proposed evidence was pertinent as bearing upon the intent of the defendant with reference to the purchasing of securities for the bank, and in dealing with the bank's funds, and that it made a difference whether he owned all of the stock or did not own any of it. The court ruled that the government had not 'opened up affirmatively the ownership of the stock,' and that the proposed evidence was not proper cross-examination.
As the order in which evidence shall be produced is within the discretion of the trial court, and as the matter sought to be elicited on the cross-examination for the accused was not offered by him at any subsequent stage of the trial, it is mani- [162 U.S. 687, 708] fest that no prejudicial error was committed by the ruling complained of.
The twelfth and seventeenth assignments of error result from an exception taken to the refusal of the court to grant defendant's request, made at the close of the testimony, for a peremptory instruction in his favor, as to the seventh count. This request was based on the assumption that all the acts relied on to convict, under that count, and which were enumerated in the bill of particulars, took place in Massachusetts, and hence were beyond the jurisdiction of the court. A like question also arises from an exception taken to the charge of the court on the same subject. We will consider first the exception taken to the charge of the court, since, if it erroneously applied the law to the facts, it must lead to reversal, although the court may have rightly refused the peremptory instruction.
As heretofore stated, this count charged the unlawful abstraction and conversion to his own use by the defendant at Exeter, N. H., of 'moneys, funds, and credits of the property of said association [the National Granite State Bank, etc.], a more particular description of which moneys, funds, and credits is to the said jurors unknown'; and that the district attorney furnished to the counsel for the defendant a bill of particulars covering 15 checks.
'Evidence was admitted, subject to defendant's exception, tending to show that at a meeting of the directors of the bank at Exeter, held about one year prior to the alleged unlawful drawing of checks by the defendant at Boston, a vote had been passed by the board of directors that no one but the cashier should thereafter have authority to draw checks [162 U.S. 687, 710] against the account with the reserve agent; that the defendant was present at that meeting, and acted as clerk of the board.
Having determined the correctness of this instruction, it [162 U.S. 687, 713] remains only to ascertain whether the proof sustained the court in leaving to the jury the charge; that is to say, contemplated in the charge; that is to say, whether the court rightly refused the peremptory request, made by the defendant, to direct a verdict in his favor. There can be no doubt that the president of a national bank, virtute officil, has not necessarily the power to draw checks against the account kept with another bank by the bank of which he is president. Indeed, the statutes expressly provide that the powers of the president of a national bank may be defined by the board of directors. Rev. St. 5136. True it is that, by a course of dealing with a particular person, the power of an officer to perform a particular act may be implied when such power is not inconsistent with law. Merchants' Bank v. State Bank, 10 Wall. 604. Now, here there was an entire absence of all proof as to a course of business implying authority on behalf of the president to draw checks in the name of the bank. In view of the fact that the power to draw the check did not inhere in the functions of the president, and in consequence of the absence of proof as to a course of business implying the power, as also in consideration of the fact that the January checks were not drawn at the banking establishment, but in another city, we think the proof was adequate to justify the court in refusing to take the case from the jury, and in leaving it to them to determine whether there was such infirmity in the checks as made a subsequent ratification, obtained in New Hampshire by the fraudulent representation of the defendant, one of the efficient causes for the absorption of the credit resulting from the debit of the checks. Apart from this view, which was covered by the charge of the court, there were other considerations which rendered it equally improper to take the case from the jury. It cannot be denied that if, when the J nuary checks were called to the attention of the bank at Exeter, the authority of the president to draw them had been repudiated, and if such denial had been communicated to the Boston bank, the ability of the president of the Exeter bank to have obtained payment of the subsequent checks would not have existed. As the failure of the Exeter [162 U.S. 687, 714] bank to repudiate the January checks, and, in so doing, give notice to the Boston bank, may have been consequent upon the fraudulent misrepresentation as to the purpose for which the January checks were drawn, it was competent for the jury to consider the relation which this fact bore to the drawing of the subsequent checks. In other words, the condition of evidence was such that the misrepresentation made in New Hampshire as to the reason for the drawing of the January checks, in connection with all the other evidence, was competent to go to the jury as tending to show, not only the completion in New Hampshire of the wrongful obtaining of the credit, commenced by the drawing and debiting in Boston of the January checks, but also the initiation in New Hampshire, of the wrongful obtaining of the credit, completed subsequently in Massachusetts by the drawing of the April and May checks, if the jury thought from all the evidence that, when the misstatements were made as to the January checks, the purpose was to further defraud by drawing the subsequent checks.
The foregoing considerations dispose of all the questions presented, and the conclusion which results from them is that there is error in the conviction as to the second count, and none as to that under the seventh count. The sentence imposed in consequence of the verdict of guilty on both counts was distinct and separate as to each count, and was made only concurrent. It follows, therefore, that, if the verdict and sentence as to the second count be set aside, nevertheless the entire amount of punishment imposed will be undergone. Under these circumstances, it is doubtful whether the error committed as to the second count should be treated as prejudicial, since the only effect of reversing and ordering a new trial as to this count will be to leave the full term of the existing sentence in force, and to submit the accused to another trial on the second count, from which trial, if convicted, an additional sentence may result. Considering this situation, we deem that the ends of justice will best be subserved by affirming the judgment and sentence under the seventh count, and by [162 U.S. 687, 715] reversing the judgment as to the second count, and remanding thecase to the court below for such proceedings with reference to that count as may be in conformity to law.
[ Footnote 1 ] Campbell v. State, 23 Ala. 444; Hemingway v. Garth, 51 Ala. 530; Bullard v. Pearsall, 53 N. Y. 230; Hurley v. State, 46 Ohio St. 330, 21 N. E. 645; People v. Kelly, 113 N. Y. 647, 651, 21 N. E. 121; Hildreth v. Aldrich, 15 R. I. 163; State v. Sorter, 52 Kan. 531, 34 Pac. 1036; Humble v. Shoemaker, 70 Iowa, 223. 30 N. W. 492; Hall v. Railway Co., 84 Iowa, 311, 51 N. W. 150: George v. Triplett (N. D.) 63 N. W. 891.

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