Joseph Story

“ A fortiori we think the acts of a public officer, like a notary public, admissible, although they may not be strictly official, if they are according to the customary business of his office, since he acts as a sworn officer, and is clothed with public authority and confidence.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Court, that the evidence excepted to in this case was rightly admitted. The variance between the copy, and the original protest, as to the time of the demand, might have been explained to the satisfaction of the jury at the trial ”

“ If the party is dead, we cannot have his personal examination on oath; and the question then arises, whether there shall be a total failure of justice, or secondary evidence shall be admitted to prove facts, where ordinary prudence cannot guard us against the effects of human mortality? Vast sums of money depend upon the evidence of notaries and messengers of banks; and if their memorandums, in the ordinary discharge of their duty and employment, are not admissible in evidence after their death, the mischiefs must be very extensive. ”

“ It does not appear that, by the laws of Tennessee, a demand of the payment of promissory notes is required to be made by a notary public, or a protest made for non-payment, or notice given by a notary to the endorsers. And by the general commercial law, it is perfectly clear, that the intervention of a notary is unnecessary in these cases. The notarial protest is not, therefore, evidence of itself, in chief, of the fact of demand, as it would be in cases of foreign bills of exchange ”

“ We think it a safe principle, that memorandums made by a person in the ordinary course of his business, of acts or matters which his duty in such business requires him to do for others, in case of his death, are admissible evidence of the acts and matters so done. It is of course liable to be impugned by other evidence ”

“ But, we all know, that, in point of fact, notaries are very commonly employed in this business; and in some of the States it is a general usage so to protest all dishonoured notes, which are lodged in, or have been discounted by the bank. The practice has, doubtless, grown up from a sense of its convenience, and the just confidence placed in men who, from their habits and character, are likely to perform these important duties with punctuality and accuracy. ”

“ If he had been alive at the trial, there is no question that the protest could not have been given in evidence, except with his deposition, or personal examination, to support it. His death gives rise to the question, whether it is not, connected with other evidence, and particularly with that of his daughter, admissible secondary evidence for the purpose of conducing to prove due demand and notice. #fnd [1]
The rules of evidence are of great importance, and cannot be departed from without endangering private as well as public rights. ”

“ Rep. 379.) in a suit on a policy of insurance where a license was necessary, the original not being found, it was proved, that it was the invariable practice of the plaintiff's office, (he being a policy broker,) that the clerk, who copies any license, sends it off by post, and makes a memorandum on the copy of his having done so; and a copy of the license in question was produced from the plaintiff's letter book, in the handwriting of a deceased clerk, with a memorandum on it, stating, that the original was sent to Doorman ”

“ And he observed, on that occasion, that, if it were not so, there would be no way in which the most careful merchant could prove the contents of a letter after the death of his entering clerk. The case of Welsh v. ”