Case Name: Joseph H. Smith, in error, v. Samuel E. Cottrell, Assignee, etc.
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1870-09
Citations: 1 Heisk. 197
Docket Number: 
Parties: Joseph H. Smith, in error, v. Samuel E. Cottrell, Assignee, etc.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tennessee Reports
Volume: 48
Pages: 197–198

Head Matter:
Joseph H. Smith, in error, v. Samuel E. Cottrell, Assignee, etc.
Evidence. Political status. Duress. Where the question of duress is involved in a transaction during the war, the political status of the parties is relevant, and proper to he proved.
PROM CLAIBORNE.
Debt, from the Circuit Court of Claiborne County. J. P. Swann, J., presiding.
Smith, the plaintiff in error, bought corn of the defendant, and agreed to pay him in bank notes. After-wards, he paid him in Confederate Treasury notes. Cot-trell, the defendant in error, sued the plaintiff in error, for the price of his corn, and insisted that he had been compelled by duress to accept the Confederate currency. He proved that'Smith was a rebel, the testimony being objected to.
James T. Shields, for plaintiff in error.
■ W. It. Evans, for defendant.

Opinion:
Nicholson, C. J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Most of the causes of error relied on by the plaintiff in error, are answered by the fact that the bill of exceptions does not show that it contains all the evidence in the case.
The objection to the proof that plaintiff in error was a rebel, was properly overruled. Whilst such evidence, in general would be irrelevant, and calculated to prejudice a jury, yet in this case, it was a circumstance that might well be looked to, in determining whether defendant in error received the Confederate money under duress.
There is no error in the record; let the judgment be affirmed.