Ward v. Powell.

3 Del. 379

• Court: Superior Court of Delaware
• Decided: July 5, 1841
• Status: Published

Opinion

Per Curiam:

Booth, Chief Justice.

The regular mode of proving a subscri]] tion to a paper would be the original subscription list, and the defend ant’s signature; but such a subscription may be inferred from tl acknowledgment of the party, either by the continued habit of r ceiving and accepting the paper as a subscriber, or by his payir the subscription price.

If a party without subscribing to a paper, declines taking it out the post-office, be cannot become liable to pay for it; and a subscriber may cease to be such at the end of the year, by refusing to take the papers from the post office, and returning them to the editor as notice of such determination.

Wales, for plaintiff. Gilpin, for defendant.

The subscription to a paper is not properly proved by an entry in a book account. If the subscription be established by other proof, the annual subscription price might form a proper subject for book entry; but the book must be proved in the usual way by the plaintiff’s oath, or the entries must be proved by the person who made them.

As to the proof of payment, no entries of money received from the plaintiff’s collector can, as against this defendant, pi'ove a payment by him; such entries can amount to nothing more than a declaration of the agent that Powell had paid him the money.

The plaintiff was nonsuited.