Constitution and statutes.

Public and private statutes defined.

Unwritten law defined

Books containing laws presumed to be correct.

Public seal authenticates a

law or

1897. The organic law is the Constitution of Government, and is altogether written. Other written laws are denominated statutes. The written law of this State is therefore contained in its Constitution and statutes, and in the Constitution and statutes of the United States.

1898. Statutes are public or private. A private statute is one which concerns only certain designated individuals, and affects only their private rights. All other statutes are public, in which are included statutes creating or affecting corporations.

1899. Unwritten law is the law not promulgated and recorded, as mentioned in Section 1896, but which is, nevertheless, observed and administered in the Courts of the country. It has no certain repository, but is collected from the reports of the decisions of the Courts, and the treatises of learned men.

1900. (§ 453.) Books printed or published under the authority of a sister State or foreign country, and purporting to contain the statutes, code, or other written law of such State or country, or proved to be commonly admitted in the tribunals of such State or country as evidence of the written law thereof, are admissible in this State as evidence of such law.

1901. The public seal of the State or country, affixed to a copy of the written law or other public document. writing, is also admissible as evidence of such law or writing.

Other evidence of laws

of other States.

1902. The oral testimony of witnesses skilled therein is admissible as evidence of the 'unwritten law of a sister State or foreign country, as are also printed and published books of reports of decisions of the Courts of such State or country, or proved to be commonly admitted in such Courts.

in statutes,

how far

evidence.

1903. The recitals in a public statute are conclusive Recitals evidence of the facts recited for the purpose of carrying it into effect, but no further. The recitals in a private statute are conclusive evidence between parties who claim under its provisions, but no further.

record

1904. A judicial record is the record or official Judicial entry of the proceedings in a Court of justice, or of the defined. official act of a judicial officer, in an action or special proceeding.

how au

as evidence

1905. (S$ 449, 450.) A judicial record of this Record, State, or of the United States, may be proved by the thenticated production of the original, or by a copy thereof, certified by the Clerk or other person having the legal custody thereof. That of a sister State may be proved by the attestation of the Clerk and the seal of the Court annexed, if there be a Clerk and seal, together with a certificate of the Chief Judge or presiding magistrate, that the attestation is in due form.

Record of

a foreign

how

ticated.

1906. (§ 451.) A judicial record of a foreign country may be proved by the attestation of the Clerk, country, with the seal of the Court annexed, if there be a Clerk authenand seal, or of the legal keeper of the record, with the seal of his office annexed, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the Chief Judge or presiding magistrate that the person making the attestation is the Clerk of the Court or the legal keeper of the record, and in either case, that the signature of such person is genuine. The signature of the Chief Judge, or presiding magistrate, must be authenticated according to the laws of the country, by the Minister of Justice, or the head of the department under whose authority the record is kept.

1907. (§ 452.) A copy of the judicial record of a foreign country is also admissible in evidence, upon proof:

Oral

evidence of

a foreign

record.

Same.

Effect of a

judgment

1. That the copy offered has been compared by the witness with the original, and is an exact transcript of the whole of it;

2. That such original was in the custody of the Clerk of the Court or other legal keeper of the same; and,

3. That the copy is duly attested by a seal which is proved to be the seal of the Court where the record remains, if it be the record of a Court; or if there be no such seal, or if it be not a record of a Court, by the signature of the legal keeper of the original.

1908. The effect of a judgment or final order in upon rights an action or special proceeding before a Court or

in various

cases.

Effect of other judicial

orders when

conclusive.

Judge of this State, or of the United States, having jurisdiction to pronounce the judgment or order, is as follows:

1. In case of a judgment or order against a specific thing, or in respect to the probate of a will, or the administration of the estate of a decedent, or in repect to the personal, political, or legal condition or relation of a particular person, the judgment or order is conclusive upon the title to the thing, the will, or administration, or the condition or relation of the per

son;

2. In other cases, the judgment or order is, in respect to the matter directly adjudged, conclusive between the parties and their successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action or special proceeding, litigating for the same thing under the same title and in the same capacity.

1909. Other judicial orders of a Court or Judge of this State, or of the United States, create a disputable presumption, according to the matter directly determined, between the same parties and their representatives and successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action or special

proceeding, litigating for the same thing under the same title and in the same capacity.

Where

parties

doemed

1910. The parties are deemed to be the same when those between whom the evidence is offered are to be were on opposite sides in the former case, and a judg- the same. ment or other determination could in that case have been made between them alone, though other parties were joined with both or either.

doemed

adjudged in

ajudgment.

1911. That only is deemed to have been adjudged What in a former judgment which appears upon its face to have been so adjudged, or which was actually and necessarily included therein or necessary thereto.

1912. Whenever, pursuant to the last four sections, a party is bound by a record, and such party stands in the relation of a surety for another, the latter is also bound from the time that he has notice of the action or proceeding, and an opportunity at the surety's request to join in the defense.

1913. The effect of a judicial record of a sister State is the same in this State as in the State where it was made, except that it can only be enforced here by an action or special proceeding, and except, also, that the authority of a guardian or committee, or of an executor or administrator, does not extend beyond the jurisdiction of the Government under which he was invested with his authority.

1914. The effect of the judicial record of a Court of admiralty of a foreign country is the same as if it were the record of a Court of admiralty of the United States.

Where bound,

sureties

principal is also.

Record of another State,

its effect.

Record of a

Court of

admiralty.

foreign

1915. The effect of the judgment of any other Effect of a tribunal of a foreign country having jurisdiction to judgment. pronounce the judgment, is as follows:

Same.

impeaching a record.

1. In case of a judgment against a specific thing, the judgment is conclusive upon the title to the thing;

2. In case of a judgment against a person, the judg ment is presumptive evidence of a right as between the parties and their successors in interest by a subsequent title, and can only be repelled by evidence of a want of jurisdiction, want of notice to the party, collusion, fraud, or clear mistake of law or fact.

Manner of 1916. Any judicial record may be impeached by evidence of a 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.

1917. The jurisdiction sufficient to sustain a record is jurisdiction over the cause, over the parties, and over the thing, when a specific thing is the subject of the judgment.

1918. Other official documents may be proved, as follows:

1. Acts of the Executive of this State, by the records of the State Department of the State, and of the United States, by the records of the State Department of the United States, certified by the heads of those departments respectively. They may also be proved by public documents printed by order of the Legislature or Congress, or either house thereof;

2. The proceedings of the Legislature of this State or of Congress, by the journals of those bodies respectively, or either House thereof, or by published statutes or resolutions, or by copies certified by the Clerk or printed by their order;

3. The acts of the Executive or the proceedings of the Legislature of a sister State, in the same manner; 4. The acts of the Executive or the proceedings of the Legislature of a foreign country, by journals pub