Samuel Freeman Miller

“ These are full; and a careful examination of them discloses nothing which, by the remotest implication, can be held to refer to an agreement made by Lee in his lifetime. Yet, as Kinney must, as a lawyer, have known that B. T. Lee was largely exceeding his powers as an administrator, nothing would have been more natural than a reference to a contract, which would have supplied this defect of power, if any such contract had been known to exist. ”

“ Kinney was a lawyer, and knew the necessity of preserving some evidence of his acceptance of the proposition, if it was one on which he ever expected to rely, yet he produces no copy of this letter of acceptance. Nor does he produce the letter from Lee acknowledging the receipt of that letter, although he found carefully filed away the letters in which Lee makes the proposition. ”

“ Under all the circumstances, in proof before us, we are compelled to conclude that Kinney labored under a mistake when he testified that the proposition of Lee had been accepted in writing. This fact is a vital one in the case of complainants, and having failed to establish it, they must fail in their suit. ”