Strawn v. Norris

In this suit, an action of assumpsit, the plaintiff, finding it difficult to establish his demand without appealing to the conscience of the defendant, filed a petition for discovery, and obtained an answer. At the trial — which was before the court sitting as a jury — the plaintiff read the answer in evidence; and thereupon the defendant insisted that the whole answer should be considered by the court as evidence in the case, but the court decided that so much of it only as was responsive to the interrogatories in the petition should be so considered. In thus deciding, the court erroneously…