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§ 3071. Questions of fact and law

(a) All questions of fact, other than those mentioned in subsection (b) of this section, are to be decided by the jury, when the trial is by jury, and all evidence thereon is to be addressed to them, except when otherwise provided by this title.

(b) All questions of law, including the admissibility of testimony, the facts preliminary to its admission, and the construction of statutes and other writings, and other rules of evidence, are to be decided by the court, and all discussions of law addressed to it.

(c) The provisions contained in this title respecting the evidence on a trial before a jury, are equally applicable on the trial of a question of fact before a court, referee, or other officer.

Subchapter II-Writings Generally

§ 3101. Kinds of writings

Writings are of two kinds:

(1) public; and

(2) private.

§ 3102. Public writings defined

Public writings are:

(1) the written acts or records of the acts of the sovereign authority, of official bodies and tribunals, and of public officers, legislative, judicial, and executive, whether of the Canal Zone, of the United States, of a State of the United States, or of a foreign country; and

(2) public records, kept in the Canal Zone, of private writings. § 3103. Private writings defined

All writings other than those defined by section 3102 of this title are private.

§ 3104. Explanation of altered writings

The party producing a writing as genuine which has been altered, or appears to have been altered, after its execution, in a part material to the question in dispute, shall account for the appearance or alteration. He may show that the alteration was made by another, without his concurrence, or was made with the consent of the parties affected by it, or otherwise properly or innocently made, or that the alteration did not change the meaning or language of the instrument. If he does so, he may give the writing in evidence, but not otherwise.

Subchapter III-Public Writings

§ 3121. Classification of public writings

Public writings are divided into four classes:

(1) laws;

(2) judicial records;

(3) other official documents; and

(4) public records, kept in the Canal Zone, of private writings. § 3122. Written laws defined

A written law is that which is promulgated in writing, and of which a record is in existence.

§ 3123. Public and private statutes defined

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.

§ 3124. Unwritten law defined

Unwritten law is the law not promulgated and recorded, provided by section 3122 of this title, but which is, nevertheless, observed and administered in the courts of the United States. It has no certain repository, but is collected from the reports of the decisions of the courts, and the treatises of learned men.

§ 3125. Public writing of state or country

A copy of a public writing of a 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 the writing.

§ 3126. Recitals in statutes as evidence

The recitals in a public statute are conclusive 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.

§ 3127. 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.

§ 3128. Authentication of judicial record

A judicial record of the Canal Zone, 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 legal custody thereof. That of a State may be proved by the attestation of the clerk and the seal of the court annexed, if there is a clerk and seal, together with a certificate of the chief judge or presiding magistrate, that the attestation is in due form.

§ 3129. Judicial record of foreign country

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 is a clerk and a seal, or of the legal keeper of the record with the seal of his office annexed, if there is 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 the person is genuine, and that the attestation is in due form. The signature of the chief judge or presiding magistrate shall be authenticated by the certificate of the minister or ambassador, or a consul, vice consul, or consular agent of the United States in the foreign country.

§ 3130. Same; compared copy

A copy of the judicial record of a foreign country is also admissible in evidence, upon proof that:

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

(2) the original was in the custody of the clerk of the court or other legal keeper of the same; and

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

§ 3131. Proof of official documents

Other official documents may be proved, as follows:

(1) Acts of the executive of the Government of the Canal Zone, by the records of the office; and of the United States, by the records

of the state department of the United States, certified by the heads of those agencies, respectively. They may also be proved by public documents printed by order of the executive or Congress, or either house thereof.

(2) The proceedings of Congress, by the journals of that body, 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 State, in the same manner.

(4) The acts of the executive, or the proceedings of the legislature of a foreign country, by journals published by their authority, or commonly received in that country as such, or by a copy certified under the seal of the country or sovereign, or by a recognition thereof in a public act of the executive of the United States.

(5) Documents of any other class in the Canal Zone, by the original, or by a copy, certified by the legal keeper thereof.

(6) Documents of any other class in a State, by the original, or by a copy, certified by the legal keeper thereof, together with the certificate of the secretary of state, judge of the supreme, superior, or county court, or mayor of a city of the State, that the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original.

(7) Documents of any other class in a foreign country, by the original, or by a copy, certified by the legal keeper thereof, with a certificate, under seal, of the country or sovereign, that the document is a valid and subsisting document of the country, and the copy is duly certified by the officer having the legal custody of the original.

(8) Documents in the departments or agencies of the United States Government, by the certificates of the legal custodian thereof. § 3132. Public record of private writing

A public record of a private writing may be proved by the original record, or by a copy thereof, certified by the legal keeper of the record.

§ 3133. Officer's deed as evidence of transfer

A deed of conveyance of real property, purporting to have been executed by a proper officer in pursuance of legal process of the district court, or the record of the deed, or a certified copy of the record is prima facie evidence that the property or interest therein described was thereby conveyed to the grantee named in the deed.

Subchapter IV-Private Writings

§ 3161. Private writings classified; seals

(a) Private writings are either:

(1) sealed; or

(2) unsealed.

(b) A scroll or other sign, made in a State or foreign country, and there recognized as a seal, shall be so regarded in the Canal Zone.

(c) There is no difference in the Canal Zone between sealed and unsealed writings. A writing under seal may therefore be changed or altogether discharged by a writing not under seal.

8 3162. Execution of instrument defined

The execution of an instrument is the subscribing and delivering it, with or without affixing a seal.

3163. Compromise of debt without seal

An agreement, in writing, without a seal, for the compromise or settlement of a debt, is as obligatory as if a seal were affixed.

§ 3164. Subscribing witness defined

A subscribing witness is one who sees a writing executed or hears it acknowledged, and at the request of the party thereupon signs his name as a witness.

§ 3165. Writings called for and inspected may be withheld

Where a writing is called for by one party and produced by the other, and is thereupon inspected by the party calling for it, he is not obliged to produce it as evidence in the case.

§ 3166. Proof of private writings

Every private writing, except last wills and testaments, may be acknowledged or proved and certified in the manner provided by chapter 27 of Title 4, and the certificate of acknowledgment or proof is prima facie evidence of the execution of the writing, in the same manner as if it were a conveyance of real property.

Subchapter V-Effect of Judgments

§ 3191. Effect of judgments generally

The effect of a judgment or final order in an action or special proceeding before a court or judge of the Canal Zone, 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, if they have notice, actual or constructive, of the pendency of the action or proceeding.

§ 3192. Effect of other judicial orders

Other judicial orders of a court or judge of the Canal Zone, 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.

§ 3193. Parties; when deemed to be the same

The parties are deemed to be the same when those between whom the evidence is offered were on opposite sides in 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.

§ 3194. Matters deemed adjudged in 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. § 3195. Principal bound when surety bound

Whenever, pursuant to sections 3191-3194 of this title, a party is bound by a record, and the 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.

§ 3196. Judicial record of a State; enforcement; personal representatives

The effect of a judicial record of a State is the same in the Canal Zone 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.

§ 3197. Record of foreign admiralty court

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.

§ 3198. Effect of foreign judgment

A final judgment of any other tribunal of a foreign country having jurisdiction, according to the laws of that country, to pronounce the judgment, has the same effect as in the country where rendered, and also the same effect as final judgments rendered in the Canal Zone. § 3199. Impeachment of judicial record

A 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.

§ 3200. Jurisdiction necessary to sustain 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.

Subchapter VI-Presumptions

§ 3221. Conclusive presumptions

The following presumptions, and no others, are deemed conclusive: (1) a malicious and guilty intent, from the deliberate commission of an unlawful act, for the purpose of injuring another;

(2) the truth of the facts recited, from the recital in a written instrument between the parties thereto, or their successors in interest by a subsequent title; but this rule does not apply to the recital of a consideration;

(3) whenever a party has, by his own declaration, act, or omission, intentionally and deliberately led another to believe a particular thing true and to act upon that belief, he may not, in any litigation arising out of the declaration, act, or omission, be permitted to falsify it;

(4) a tenant is not permitted to deny the title of his landlord at the time of the commencement of the relation;

(5) the issue of a wife cohabiting with her husband, who is not impotent, is indisputably presumed to be legitimate;

(6) the judgment or order of a court, when declared by this title to be conclusive; but the judgment or order must be alleged in the pleadings if there is an opportunity to do so; if there is no such opportunity, the judgment or order may be used as evidence; and

(7) any other presumption which, by statute, is expressly made conclusive.

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