Maddock v. Connolly

Howell, V. C.

Whether a complainant seeks to establish a lost instrument such as a deed of conveyance or a will, or seeks to recover upon a lost instrument such as a mortgage, or a promissory note, the burden is on him in the first instance to prove that a document of the sort alleged in the bill once existed, that it was properly executed and delivered, that it has been lost, and that proper search has been made for it; and when these points shall have been proved the court will then take secondary evidence as to its contents. This rule manifestly casts the burden of proof on the party…