Roger B. Taney

“ But there was no contradictory testimony, nor any question in relation to the credibility of the witness. The facts as stated by him were not controverted; and in this state of the evidence, the counsel for the defendant, in his third prayer, moved the court to instruct the jury, that the acknowledgment so proved was not sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover, without proof of the endorsements of the payees. The point thus presented to the circuit court, was upon the legal sufficiency of the evidence ”

“ If there had been any evidence conducing to prove the fact insisted on by the defendant, the jury were certainly the proper judges of its sufficiency; and the court could not, without encroaching on the province of the jury, have instructed them on that point. ”

“ We think they are both embraced in it: and as, by a law of Georgia, the endorsement on these notes was made prima facie evidence that they had been so endorsed by the proper party, we think the circuit court were bound to regard this law as a rule of evidence. It dispensed with the proof which the defendant insisted on; and the circuit court, on that ground, were right in refusing the prayers, of the defendant, which required proof of these endorsements. Upon the production of the notes, the plaintiff was entitled to recover without the aid of the parol evidence ”