Case Name: Josiah Canty against Thomas Sumter
Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: South Carolina
Decision Date: 1797-04
Citations: 2 Bay 93
Docket Number: 
Parties: Josiah Canty against Thomas Sumter.
Judges: Present, Bueke, Grimke, Waties and Bay.
Reporter: South Carolina Law Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 93–93

Head Matter:
Josiah Canty against Thomas Sumter.
Columbia,
April, 1797.
The obligee, of a bond is ai?, incompetent witness to prove payment so as to destroy the right of the assignee®
1 Bum* and East, 29&3 29 r.
DEBT on bond.
This was a case tried at Camden, in which it appeared that the bond in question had been assigned over by Josiah Canty, the present nominal plaintiff, to John C. Smith, who was the real bona fide holder ; and that on the trial, Josiah Canty was called upon by defendant to prove payment of this bond. He was objected to as an incompetent witness, as his testimony would go to impeach a security, which he had given; the bond had been transferred by him to John C. Smith, in the way of trade for a valuable consideration; and to suffer him to give evidence of payment, would go to destroy the validity of the bond, by shewing there was nothing due on it. ...
The courts of justice had frequently laid.it down, as an invariable maxim, that no, man shall be suffered to invalidate his own instrument; if it were otherwise, the consequence would be very prejudicial to commerce, and would go to destroy that confidence which men repose in each other, in their mutual transactions together; which objection the court sustained. The case then went to the jury, and there was a verdict for the plaintiff.

Opinion:
The case was afterwards taken up to the court of appeals at Columbia, upon a motion for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection, but it was refused by the judges unanimously.
Present, Bueke, Grimke, Waties and Bay.