Case: SAME CAUSE
Abbreviation: Same Cause
Decision Date: 1792
Docket Number: 
Citation: 2 Dall. 143
Volume: 2
Reporter: United States Reports
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Parties: SAME CAUSE.
Judges: 
Pages: 143–144

Head Matter:
SAME CAUSE.
IN order to prove certain passengers, imported by the defendant into the State, to be convicts, and to have undergone punishment, in the Spiel-House of Hamburg, in Germany, a commission to examine witnesses in that city had been taken out. This was returned by the commissioners, containing a written report of the names of the persons confined in the Spiel-House, in 1786, and of the offences for which they had been convict ed, certified by a clerk of the Chancery, to have been signed by the late directors of the Spiel-House, in his presence, and that of the commissioners. The return was objected to, and,

Opinion:
By the Court:
—This is not a good execution of the commission. The testimony is not taken under oath : And, as to the paper being evidence in itself, it is not an official paper, certified by the proper officers, who had, at that time, the custody of the Spiel-House, or of the books. They stile themselves the late directors. This paper, therefore, is not admissible as evidence.