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§ 1909.

§ 1910.

§ 1911.

§ 1912.

§ 1913.

§ 1914.

§ 1915.

§ 1916.

§ 1917.

§ 1918.

§ 1919.

§ 1919a.

§ 1919b.

§ 1920.

§ 1921.

§ 1922.

Same.

§ 1923.

§ 1924.

§ 1925.

§ 1926.

§ 1928.

Effect of other judicial orders when conclusive.
Where parties are to be deemed the same.
What deemed adjudged in a judgment.
Where sureties bound, principal is also.
Record of any state, its effect.
Record of a court of admiralty.
Effect of foreign judgment.

Manner of impeaching a record.

The jurisdiction necessary in a judgment.
Manner of proving other official documents.
Public record of private writing evidence.

Church records, registers and entries as evidence.

Same: proof of genuineness.

Entries prima facie evidence.

Justice's judgment in states of United States, how proved.

Contents of certificates, etc.

Provisions, etc., of states apply to territories.

Certificates of purchase primary evidence of ownership.

Entries by officers, etc.

Deed, evidence of transfer.

§ 1892. Every citizen entitled to inspect and copy public writings. Every citizen has a right to inspect and take a copy of any public writing of Guam, except as otherwise expressly provided by law. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1893. Public officers to give copies. Every public officer having the custody of a public writing, which a citizen has a right to inspect, is bound to give him, on demand, a certified copy of it, on payment of the legal fees therefor, and such copy is admissible as evidence in like cases and with like effect as the original writing. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1894. Four kinds of public writings. Public writings are divided into four classes:

1. Laws;

2. Judicial records;

3. Other official documents;

4. Public records, kept in Guam, of private writings. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1895. Laws, written or unwritten. Laws, whether organic or ordinary, are either written or unwritten. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1896. Written laws defined. A "written law" is that which is promulgated in writing, and of which a record is in existence. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1898. Public and private laws defined. Laws are public or private. A “private law" is one which concerns only certain designated individuals, and affects only their private rights. All other laws are public, in which are included statutes creating or affecting corporations. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1899. Unwritten law defined. "Unwritten law" is the law, not promulgated and recorded, as mentioned in § 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 decision of the courts, and the treatises of learned men. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1900. Books containing laws presumed to be correct. Books printed or published under the authority of a 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 Guam as evidence of such law. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1901. Evidence of foreign law. A copy of the written law or other public writing of any state or country, attested by the certificate of the officer having charge of the original, under the public seal of the state or country, is admissible as evidence of such law or writing. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1902. Other evidence of laws of any states. The oral testimony of witnesses skilled therein is admissible as evidence of the unwritten law of any 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1903. Recitals in laws, how far evidence. The recitals in a public law are conclusive evidence of the facts recited for the purpose of carrying it into effect, but no further. The recitals in a private law are conclusive evidence between parties who claim under its provisions, but no further. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1904. Judicial record defined. A "judicial record" is the record or official entry of the proceedings in a court of justice, or of the official act of a judicial officer, in an action or special proceeding. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1905. Record, how authenticated as evidence. A judicial record of Guam, or of the United States, may be proved by the production of the original, or by a copy thereof, certified by the clerk or other person having the legal custody thereof. That of a state of the United States 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1906. Same, judicial records. A judicial record of a foreign country may be proved by the attestation of the clerk, with the seal of the court annexed, if there be a clerk and a 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, and that the attestation is in due form. The signature of the chief judge or presiding magistrate must be authenticated by the certificate of the minister or ambassador, or a consul, vice consul, or consular agent of the United States in such foreign country. [Enacted 1953.]

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

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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1908. Effect of judgment or final order. The effect of a judgment or final order in an action or special proceeding before a court or judge of Guam, 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 respect 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 person.

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, provided they have notice, actual or constructive, of the pendency of the action or proceeding. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1909. Effect of other judicial orders when conclusive. Other judicial orders of a court or judge of Guam, or of the United States, create a disputable presumption, according to the matter directly determined, between the same parties and the 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. [Enacted 1953.]

The

§ 1910. Where parties are to be deemed the same. parties are deemed to be the same when those between whom the evidence is offered were on opposite sides of the former case, and a judgment or other determination could in that case have been made between them alone, though other parties were joined with both or either. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1911. What deemed adjudged in a judgment. That only is deemed to have been adjudged 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1912. Where sureties bound, principal is also. Whenever, pursuant to the last four sections, a party is bound by 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1913. Record of any state, its effect. The effect of a judicial record of a state or territory of the United States is the same in Guam 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1914. Record of a court of admiralty. 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1915. Effect of foreign judgment. A final judgment of any other tribunal of a foreign country having jurisdiction, according to the laws of such country, to pronounce the judgment, shall have the same effect as in the country where rendered, and also the same effect as final judgments rendered in Guam. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1916. Manner of impeaching a record. 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1917. The jurisdiction necessary in a judgment. 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. [Enacted 1953.]

§ 1918. Manner of proving other official documents. Other official documents may be proved, as follows:

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