Edmiston v. Schwartz

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Gibson, J.

Before admitting a record as evidence, the court must be enabled to judge of the legal effect of the whole of it which may be different from that of a part; and a bare extract is therefore not the best evidence of which the case is susceptible. But the court will not pronounce evidence to be secondary where it does not appear on the face of it that better remains to be produced. Then from what is the court to judge whether an exemplication contains the whole record? Certainly from the certificate of the officer, whose business it was to…