Plumer v. Alexander
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Common Pleas of Clarion. This was an action on the case, brought by William Alexander and David Morell against Samuel E. Plumer and Frederick G. Crary, under the following circumstances: P. and C. were the owners of a furnace, at which they built a dam over the Clarion river, formerly called Toby’s creek, with a chute in it for the passage of boats and rafts.
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Error to the Common Pleas of Clarion. This was an action on the case, brought by William Alexander and David Morell against Samuel E. Plumer and Frederick G. Crary, under the following circumstances: P. and C. were the owners of a furnace, at which they built a dam over the Clarion river, formerly called Toby’s creek, with a chute in it for the passage of boats and rafts. A. and M. had a flat-bottomed boat, laden with iron, which they despatched to market, at a time when the waters of the river were high and still rising. The boat was run down the river to Delo’s Eddy, a few miles above the…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of this Court was delivered by
Coulter, J.
The admission of Walters, the pilot, as a witness, which is the first error assigned, is not sustained by the decisions of this Court on the subject. It is true that in commercial cases, to which this is closely allied, the rules of evidence are not so *85strictly applied, because persons in some degree interested are often tbe only witnesses of the transaction on which the ease turns. But in this State, and even in England, they have been adopted to a certain extent. The verdict in this cause would not be evidence for the pilot in a suit…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Humphreys v. ReedSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1841
- Schuylkill Navigation Co. v. HarrisSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1842
- Lessee of Porter v. JohnstonSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1796