Alvarado Min. & Mill Co. v. Warnock

187 P. 542, 25 N.M. 694
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 29, 1919
DocketNo. 2258
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 187 P. 542 (Alvarado Min. & Mill Co. v. Warnock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alvarado Min. & Mill Co. v. Warnock, 187 P. 542, 25 N.M. 694 (N.M. 1919).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

RAYNOLDS, J.

[1] The complaint in this ease alleged that the plaintiff, George Warnock, was the owner of certain mining claims; that the defendant company had removed copper ore from said claims and converted the same to its own use, without right or authority so to do. Plaintiff asked damages for such, conversion. Defendant admitted ownership in the plaintiff of the claims, but denied that the removal of such ore was without right or authority, alleging that it was operating under and by authority of certain leases and contracts set out as exhibits in its answer. Jury was waived, and the case tried by the judge, who found for the plaintiff, and assessed, his damages at the sum of $3,794.55, the amount which, by amendment, without objection, the plaintiff at the beginning of the trial was granted leave to insert in his complaint as damages. From such judgment the defendant company sued out a writ of error to this court, and assigned 15 errors as ground for reversal, only 3 of which need be considered; the others being treated as abandoned because not argued in the brief. Klasner, v. Klasner, 23 N. M. 627, 170 Pac. 745; Clark v. Queen City Insurance Co., 22 N. M. 387, 163 Pac. 371.

[2] Plaintiff in error in its first two assignments urges that the trial court erred in admitting the six statements of account taken from the books of the American Smelting & Refining Company, such statements purporting to show the settlements on ore received by said refining company from the Alvarado Mining & Milling Company, the plaintiff in error herein. It is contended that the proper foundation was not laid for the introducr tion of this evidence, and that the statute, Code 1915, § 2187, was not complied with. The evidence in question was taken by the deposition of a witness, and copies of what the books of the company purported to show in regard to the transaction were attached as exhibits to the deposition. The witness testified that he was the assistant manager of the accounting department of the American Smelting & Refining Company; that the booKS were the regular boobs of the company; that he had these books under his control, and that the copies attached were correct copies of what the books showed in regard to the transaction in question. The statute cited above and the so-called Shop Book Rule have been passed upon by this court in former cases, and have been held on the one hand to supersede the common-law rule (Price v. Garland, 3 N. M. [Gild.] 505, 6 Pac. 472), and on the other hand to merely supplement the common law (McKenzie v. King, 14 N. M. 375, 93 Pac. 703). In the latter case it was held that when the clerk who kept the books is present and testifies, the other requirements of the statute can be dispensed with. „

We agree with the appellee’s contention that under the circumstances of this case and the manner in which a large foreign corporation keeps its books, the requirement for the introduction of them in evidence could not be complied with under our statute, and that such statute was probably only intended to prevent fabrication of testimony by a party to the suit. We do not deem it necessary, however, to consider the objections to this class of testimony, for the reason that no proper objection was made to its introduction. This court has held in numerous cases that only such assignments of error can be considered as were brought to the attention of the trial judge so as to enable him to correct them. Crabtree v. Segrist, 3 N. M. (Gild.) 500, 6 Pac. 202; Chaves v. Myer, 13 N. M. 368, 85 Pac. 233, 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 793; Duncan v. Holder, 15. N. M. 323, 107 Pac. 685; Territory v. Mills, 16 N. M. 555, 120 Pac. 325. In justice and fairness to the trial court the grounds of objection should be stated in order that he may rule intelligently upon the question presented. This case is a good illustration of the justice and fairness of such a rule, and illustrates why a broad general objection to the evidence gives the trial court no notice of the vice to which the objector should seek to call the trial court’s attention. The testimony was taken by deposition. The first objection was made to interrogatory 3, which interrogatory was:

“If you state that you are assistant manager of the accounting department of the same company, please state whether or not you have under your control books showing returns covering a shipment of copper ore from Alamogordo, N. M., by the Alvarado Milling & Mining Company of El Paso, Tex., to the smelter of the American Smelting & Refining Company in the month of July, 1917”

- — -to which, objection was made as follows:

“Object to No. 3. No proper foundation laid. (Objection overruled. Exception.)”

The same objection was made to interrogatory No. 4, and an exception taken to the overruling of such objection. The interrogatory was:

“If you state that you have books under your control, please state whether they are the regular books of the said company, and, if so, state what they show with reference to the returns of said shipment of copper ore, and attach a copy of the return of the smelter, and show particularly the gross proceeds from the said ore, and had the said return to the officer taking these depositions, and have him mark the same ‘Plaintiff’s Exhibit A’ and attach to these depositions.”

The objection, as before stated, was:

“Object. No proper foundation laid.”

What does this objection mean? Was it intended to call the court’s attention to the fact that secondary evidence was being introduced where primary or the best evidence was necessary, and the absence of said primary or best evidence had not been accounted for so as to permit the introduction of secondary evidence? Was it objected to on the ground that it was hearsay evidence, or on the ground that the conditions and requirements under the statute had not been complied with to introduce shop books in evidence? The plaintiff was not endeavoring to introduce the books in question, but copies of what were shown by the books, and the objection might have meant, either that the proper foundation had not been laid for the introduction of such copies, or that the conditions required by the statute had not been complied with; that is to say that the assistant manager was not a bookkeeper within the meaning of the statute, that it had not been proven that the bookkeeper was dead, or that the company kept no bookkeeper, or that the book, a copy, of which was sought to be introduced, was not a book of original entries, or that it was not shown that the company usually kept correct books, or that the books, the copies thereof sought to be introduced, were not open to the inspection of the court, so that the court could see whether or not they were free from any suspicion of fraud, or, finally, was the objection to the evidence that the witness attempted to testify as to hearsay evidence and matters not within his own konwledge, and no foundation had been laid to show that such testimony was an exception to the hearsay rule?

-The difficulty of the trial court in passing upon an objection of this kind is easily seen. The objecting party was familiar with the depositions and knew upon what ground they should be excluded.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Malczewski v. McReynolds Construction Co.
630 P.2d 285 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1981)
Anderson, Clayton & Co. v. Swallows
505 P.2d 431 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1973)
Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Candelaria
403 F.2d 351 (Tenth Circuit, 1968)
Ash v. HG Reiter Company
429 P.2d 653 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1967)
State v. Silva
430 P.2d 783 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1967)
Whittaker v. Otto
248 Cal. App. 2d 666 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
Adams v. Heisen
423 P.2d 414 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1967)
Leonard v. Barnes
404 P.2d 292 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1965)
Hanberry v. Fitzgerald
384 P.2d 256 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1963)
Sturgeon v. Clark
364 P.2d 757 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1961)
Scofield v. JW Jones Construction Company
328 P.2d 389 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1958)
Grim v. Proctor
152 P.2d 167 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1944)
Mares v. New Mexico Public Service Co.
82 P.2d 257 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1938)
State v. Clarkson
76 P.2d 1161 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1938)
Whitley v. State
1932 NMSC 039 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1932)
Santa Barbara Tie & Pole Co. v. Martinez
279 P. 71 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1929)
Candelaria v. Gutierrez
230 P. 436 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1924)
Bezemek v. Balduini
207 P. 330 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 P. 542, 25 N.M. 694, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alvarado-min-mill-co-v-warnock-nm-1919.