[Download] "Domingo Urtetiqui, Plaintiff in Error v. John N. D'Arcy" by United States Supreme Court # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Domingo Urtetiqui, Plaintiff in Error v. John N. D'Arcy
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1835
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 72 KB
Description
This case comes up on a writ of error from the circuit court of the Maryland district. It is an action of assumpsit. The declaration contains the common money counts, and also counts for goods sold and delivered, work, labour and services, and an insimul computassent. There is an averment in the declaration, that the plaintiffs are citizens of the state of Maryland, and the defendant an alien, and subject of the king of Spain. The defendant pleaded the general issue, and also a plea in abatement, alleging that Domingo D'Arbel, one of the plaintiffs, was not, at the commencement of the suit, a citizen of the United States, or any one of them; to which there was a replication, and issue thereupon joined. And by an agreement contained in the record, all errors in pleading are waived on both sides; and the cause comes here on five bills of exceptions taken at the trial; three of which relate to matters arising under the plea in abatement, and the other two upon the merits. The question arising upon the first exception, turns upon the admissibility in evidence of the passport given by the secretary of state, introduced to prove the citizenship of Domingo D'Arbel. The record states, that the plaintiffs, further to support the issue on their part, on the plea in abatement to the jurisdiction of this court filed in this cause, offered in evidence the following paper, purporting to be a passport from the secretary of state of the United States, and which was admitted to be an original paper from the department of state, signed by John Quincy Adams, then secretary of state of the United States; and also offered evidence, that the several indorsements on said paper, were respectively in the handwriting of the several persons signing the same; and that the said persons were the respective officers of the government of Mexico, as they style themselves in the said indorsements, at the periods at which the same were made. It was also admitted, that at the date of the said passport, said D'Arbel was then in Mexico, and that the said passport was applied for, and obtained for him, at his instance, and by his request, by one of the co-plaintiffs, who transmitted the same to the said D'Arbel, into whose possession it came, and by whom it was used. The only proof of said use being the said indorsements so made thereon. The passport is as follows: 'United States of America. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. I, the undersigned, secretary of state of the United States of America, hereby request all whom it may concern, to permit safely and freely to pass, Domingo D'Arbel, a citizen of the United States, and in case of need, to give him all lawful aid and protection. Given under my hand, and the impression of the seal of the department of state, at the city of Washington, the 22d day of March 1824, in the forty-eighth year of the independence of these United States. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.' To the admissibility of which paper in evidence, the defendant, by his counsel, objected; the same not being legal or competent evidence of the American citizenship of said D'Arbel. But the court were of opinion, and so decided, that the said paper was legal and competent evidence of said citizenship, and the same was admitted.