or of a board, or department thereof, certified by the legal keeper thereof, or by a printed book published by the authority of such corporation, are in California, evidence of such acts.21 An original public document of any other class in California or copy thereof certified by the legal keeper of such original, is admissible in evidence in that state.22 The original public document of any other class in a sister state, or a copy of such original document certified by the legal keeper thereof, together with the certificate of the secretary of state, judges of the Supreme Court, Superior or County Court, or mayor of a city of such state, that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original, is admissible as evidence, in California.23 13. The original public document of any other class in a foreign country, or a copy of such original document, certified by the legal keeper thereof, with a certificate under the seal of the country or sovereign that the document is a valid and subsisting document of such country and that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original, is admissible as evidence in California.24 A certificate of the legal custodian of a document in a department of the United States government duly made is evidence of such document.25 The original public record of a private writing, or a copy thereof certified by the legal keeper of the record is evidence of such record in California.26 A transcript from the record or docket of a justice of the peace of a sister state of a judgment rendered by him, of the proceedings in the action before the judgment, of the execution and return, if any, subscribed by the justice, when there is attached to the transcript a certificate of the justice that the transcript is in all respects correct, and that he had jurisdiction of the action, and a further certificate of the clerk or prothonotary of the county in which the justice resided at the time of the 21. Code of Civil Procedure, Sec. 1918. rendering of the judgment, under the seal of the county, or the seal of the court of commons pleas, or county court thereof, certifying that the person subscribing the transcript was at the date of the judgment, a justice of the peace in that county and that the signature is genuine, is evidence of the facts stated in such transcript. Such judgment, proceedings, and jurisdiction may also be proved by the justice himself, on the production of his docket, or by the copy of the judgment, and his oral examination as a witness.27 The provisions of the sections of the Code of Civil Procedure of California applicable to the public writings of a sister state as evidence, are equally applicable to the public writings of the United States or of a territory of the United States.28 Under the statutes of California, entries in public or other official books or, records made in the performance of his official duty by a public officer of that state, or by another person in the performance of a duty specially enjoined by law, and entries made by an officer or board of officers, or under the direction or in the presence of either, in the course of official duties, are prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein.29 Courts take judicial notice of the seals of state of each of the sovereign powers in the civilized world, and public acts, decrees and judgments exemplified under such seal are received as true and genuine, without further proof.30 Independent of statutory provisions on the subject, foreign judgments are authenticated: 1. By an exemplification under the great seal of a state. 2. By a copy proved to be a true copy. 3. By the certificate of an officer authorized by law, which certificate must itself be properly authenticated.31 Such copy can be proven to be a true copy of the original, and the existence of the original can be proven by the deposition of a witness taken under a commission issued for that purpose by the court in which the evidence is to be used.32 Such deposition must be regularly taken under legal proceedings duly pending, and it has been stated by high authority, that the taking of depositions of witnesses in foreign countries under a commission issued by a court of justice and to be used in that court in legal proceedings pending therein, was deemed to be within the inherent powers of such court.33 By statute law in most, if not all of the states of this country, provisions have been made for the taking of such depositions. By the rules of the common law, acts of state may be proved by production of the original printed acts from a press authorized by government; proclamations and other acts and orders of the executive of like character may be proved by the production of the government gazette, in which they were authorized to be printed; printed copies of public documents transmitted to congress by the president of the United States and printed by the printer to congress, are evidence of those documents; the certificate of the secretary of state is evidence that a particular person has been recognized as a foreign minister; the certificate of a foreign governor duly authenticated is evidence of his own officials acts; in most, if not all the states in this country, the printed copies of the law and resolves of the legislature of a state, purporting to be printed by the authority of the state, are competent evidence of such laws and resolutions, with the exception of private statutes, and if a private statute contains a provision that it shall be taken notice of, as if it were a public act, then such printed copy is evidence of such private statute; private statutes of the same state or of other states, can be proved, by a copy, proven on oath to have been examined by the roll itself, or, by an exemplification under the great seal; legislative journals may be proven by examined copies; entries of public writings in books kept by persons in public office in which such public officers are required to write down particular transactions occurring in the course of their public duties, or under their personal observation, may be proved by the books themselves, or by copies thereof proven to be such copies, or otherwise duly authenticated, and 33. 1 Greenleaf Ev., Sec. 320. such entries are evidence of the facts therein stated; such entries, however, must be of matters required to be entered therein in the performance of official duty; laws of a foreign country may be proved by a copy of such laws exemplified as such copy by the great seal of state of such country, or by other evidence under oath, of such laws, after it is first proven that such exemplified copy cannot be procured. Unwritten laws of a foreign country or of a sister state can be proved by the testimony of witnesses instructed in such unwritten laws; an approved and public general history is admissible to prove ancient facts of a public nature and the general usages and customs of a country; contents of a lost record, after proof of such loss, may be proved by secondary evidence.34 Judgments in some cases may be proven as facts in an action, although the parties to such action were not parties to the action in which the judgment was rendered.35 When a foreign court has rendered a judgment in personam, the jurisdiction of such court, and its power over the parties and the things in controversy may be inquired into, and such judgment may be impeached for fraud.36 It is declared by statute in California, that any judicial record may be impeached by evidence of want of jurisdiction in the court or judicial officer, of collusion between the parties, or of fraud in the party offering the record, in respect to the proceedings.37 When a judgment is attacked for collusion between the parties to the judgment, or for fraud on the part of the person offering the judgment, such attack may be made in the action in which such judgment is offered under allegations in the pleadings showing such collusion or fraud.38 34. 1 Greenleaf Ev., Secs. 479, 481, 482, 483, 484, 486, 487, 488, 489; 497; 509. 35. 1 Greenleaf Ev., Secs. 538, 539. 36. 1 Greenleaf Ev. Sec. 547. 37. Code of Civil Procedure, Sec. 1916. 38. Pom. Equity Jur. Sec. 919. CHAPTER XXIV. OF THE TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES AND THEIR EXAMINATION. The most important means for the proof of facts in issue in an action is the oral testimony of witnesses who are duly sworn, or affirmed, to testify to the truth in the action. Such testimony is either given in open court on the trial of the action, or it is given in a deposition taken on notice to the opposite party; if the deposition be not taken in the state in which the deposition is to be used, the testimony of the witness is taken under and by virtue of a commission issued out of the court in which such testimony is to be used, and is usually taken on interrogatories and cross interrogatories settled by the court issuing the commission, and which are attached to the commission. The method of taking and of returning such depositions to be used in a state, are prescribed by the statutes of such state, and the methods so prescribed must be followed, otherwise such depositions are not admissible in evidence. When such deposition is taken on notice, objections to questions asked the witness in taking the testimony, if improper in form, should be made at the time the deposition of the witness is taken and should be entered in the deposition by the person taking it, and such objections and other objections to questions, are ruled on, by the court, at the time such deposition is read in evidence. The testimony of a witness taken by deposition is not as satisfactory as the testimony would be, if given in open court, since the court or jury who are to determine questions of fact, have not the opportunity to notice the manner of the witness when his testimony is given in a deposition, which they would |
