Case Name: JESSE SAUNDER'S LESSEE v. ELIJAH CANNON
Court: Delaware Court of Common Pleas
Jurisdiction: Delaware
Decision Date: 1794-11
Citations: 1 Del. Cas. 36
Docket Number: 
Parties: JESSE SAUNDER’S LESSEE v. ELIJAH CANNON.
Judges: 
Reporter: Delaware Cases
Volume: 1
Pages: 36–37

Head Matter:
JESSE SAUNDER’S LESSEE v. ELIJAH CANNON.
Court of Common Pleas.
November, 1794.
Wilson’s Red Book, 35.
McDonough and Rodney, Justices [sitting], the Chief Justice having been of counsel in this cause.
Defendant’s counsel, Bayard,
offered in evidence a deposition of a witness taken by defendant, [in] 1766 before William Elligood, a Justice of the Peace at that time, on proof of his handwriting.
Wilson objected it is not taken by rule of,
or commission from, any court, no suit was depending; plaintiff, nor those under whom he claimed, have not had an opportunity to cross-examine, which is the ground upon which any evidence on a former trial, any verdict, or any deposition is ever read in evidence, and cited 1 Morg.Ess. 130, 92, 118, 121. And there is but one exception and that is to prove marriage or pedigree ex necessitate, as idem 245. And where that is the object even hearsay evidence is ad missible, idem 34. Ridgely insisted it was evidence in corroboration of their other evidence and that its ancientness gave it authenticity and was like the case of an old map, 1 Morg.Ess. 140. That the cases read are of new affidavits, except 245 which was in point.
Bayard.
Antiquity operates as proof; a deed must be proved, but an old one may be read without. Polk’s lessee v. Minner and Thorn was cited, quad vide.
Peery replied
that the deposition is not thirty years old, and, therefore, does not come up to the cases at best. The map, Morg. Ess. 140, was allowed to prove boundary, and that is the operation of the case Polk v. Minner, and urged the consequences.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
Let it be read in evidence, we leave the weight of it with the jury. No charge.
Verdict for the plaintiff.