Bank v. Hannaman

60 S.E. 242, 63 W. Va. 358, 1908 W. Va. LEXIS 102
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 60 S.E. 242 (Bank v. Hannaman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank v. Hannaman, 60 S.E. 242, 63 W. Va. 358, 1908 W. Va. LEXIS 102 (W. Va. 1908).

Opinion

McWhorter, Judge:

This was an action of debt brought by the Parkersburg National Bank, of Parkersburg, against A. T. Barrett, J. R. Barrett and A. J. Hannaman upon a protested note purporting to have been made by A. J. Hannaman payable to the order of J. R. Barrett and A. T. Barrett and by them endorsed, for $1,000 dated January 17, 1901, negotiable and payable ninety clays after its elate at the Citizens National Bank of Parkersburg.

The defendants, A. J. Plannaman and J. R. Barrett, filed tneir respective pleas denying their signatures on said note as maker and endorser and the defendant A. T. Barrett filed a plea that he had been adjudicated an involuntary bankrupt. The issue was tried before a jury as to the defendants Hanna-[360]*360man and J. R. Barrett and a verdict returned in favor of the plaintiff for the amount of the note and its interest. The defendants Hannaman and J. R. Barrett excepted to various rulings of the court and in the course of the trial took six several bills of exceptions to such rulings which were made a part of the record.

Bill of exceptions No. 1 questions the rulings of the court in giving instructions on behalf of the plaintiff, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Instruction No. 1 is as follows: “The jury are instructed that a preponderance of the evidence does not imply a majority of the witnesses. The jury is the judge of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of each witness, and in deciding upon the weight of evidence, the jury may take into consideration the qualification and interest of each witness, and its conclusion must be-formed after considering the weight of all the testimony offered for both the plaintiff and the defendants. ” An especial objection is raised to this instruction because it is said “the jury may take into consideration the qualification and interest of each witness,” &c., insisting that the word “qualification” is synonymous with the the word “competent” or “competency,” thus leaving the competency of the witnesses to the judgment of the jury. In the connection in which the term “qualification” is used in the instruction, it cannot have the meaning insisted upon by the defendants. In Railway Co. v. Whitehead, 71 Miss. 451, at page 452, it is said: “The evidence of expert witnesses is to be treated by the jury precisely as other testimony. Its value may be very great, or it may be of little worth. It may be conclusive, or it may be not even, persuasive. Its weight will be determined by the character, the capacity, the skill, the opportunities for observation, and the state of mind of the experts themselves, as seen and heard and estimated by the jury, and, it should be added, by the nature of the case and all its developed facts.” It will be there seen that the weight of the testimony will be determined by the jury by the character, the capacity, the skill, the opportunities for observation, and the state of mind of the witnesses. These matters to be considered by the jury are not to test the competency of the witnesses to testify generally but to enable the jury to determine the weight to be given to the evi[361]*361dence given by them. While it is for the court to determine the competency of the witnesses to testify, the.value of the testimony given by such witnesses is a question for the jury. In Carter v. Baker, 1 Sawyer 512 (U. S. Cir. Ct.,) it is held: “The testimony of experts is to be considered like any other testimony; is to be tried by the same tests and receive just so much weight and' credit as the jury may deem it entitled to when viewed in connection with all the circumstances.” In Thompson v. Ish, 99 Mo. 160: “The court must determine, in the first instance, whether a witness who is offered as an expert possesses the proper qualifications, but the value of the testimony of such witness is a question for the jurjr, and depends upon the skill of the witness in his profession, the extent of which may be shown by one who speaks from knowledge.” The appellants cite several authorities to the effect that it is the province of the court and not of the jury to decide upon the competency of witnesses, and this, as a rule, is not disputed; but the instruction clearly intends that the jury shall consider such qualities in witnesses to enable them to give due weight and credence to their testimony, and it is not for them to decide and they could not have so understood the instruction as to authorize them to pass upon the competency of the witnesses to give evidence. The setting of the word “qualification” in the instruction carries with it the intention of the court so that the mind of the layman would give it the common-sense meaning intended to be conveyed to the minds of the jury.

The instruction Ho. 1 is further objected to because “it tells the jury what is not a preponderant^ of the evidence, but did not tell them what is meant by ‘a preponderance of the evidence,’ nor does it tell them that they should- be guided by a preponderance of the evidence in determing upon their verdict.” The court merely instructed the jury that a majority in number of witnesses does not necessarily make a preponderance of evidence; in other words, the weight of the evidence is not measured by the number of witnesses but by the credibility of the witnesses. Then they are further told that they must arrive at their conclusion after weighing all the testimony offered by both parties and this weight of testimony is taken from the credibility of the witnesses testifying in the presence of the jury, the estimate of [362]*362their character, capacity, skill and trustworthiness being made by the jury. It would seem to be a reflection upon the intelligence of the jury to question their ability to understand the meaning of a preponderance of the evidence, or that when they are instructed to weigh all the evidence adduced before them, to question their ability to know what is intended by weighing the evidence. The evidence on one side of the case is placed in one of the balances and the evidence on thq other side in the other balance and the average man can certainly understand that the stronger and weightier evidence, that is, that which is most probable and reasonable, will bring down the scale,- that when the heavier brings down one side of the balance the other or lighter goes up showing an inequality in the weight in favor of the one party or the other.

The exception to instruction No. 2 is not insisted upon and we see that no valid objection can be made thereto as the jury is only told that if they believe from the evidence that the names of Hannaman and J. Ii. Barrett, as signed and endorsed on the note, are in the handwriting respectively of said defendants they must find for the plaintiff. This would make the plaintiff’s case if proven, without reference to the question of ratification or consent in case the signatures had been made by others or another for them and recognized or acquiesced in by them and treated as their own act.

Instruction No. 3 is complained of because “It tells the jury that the witnesses who testified in this case as experts in hand-writing have given only their opinion as to the genuineness of the signatures of the note in controversy, and that so far as they testify as experts they do not pretend to testify from actual knowledge.” Some of the witnesses testified by comparison of hand-writing on the note sued upon with the signatures on the pleas filed by the defendants Han-naman and J. R.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 S.E. 242, 63 W. Va. 358, 1908 W. Va. LEXIS 102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-v-hannaman-wva-1908.