Doe D. Gilbert v. Ross

With the original 1789 deed establishing prior ownership unavailable because the party holding it as debt security refused to produce it and the trial court didn't call the person who could testify to its contents, Gilbert's lessors (plaintiffs) offered two forms of secondary evidence — an attested copy the judge rejected for lacking an official stamp, and a shorthand note of the deed's contents (previously used in other litigation) that the judge admitted; Ross (defendant) argued on appeal that the attested copy, not the shorthand note, was the properly preferred secondary evidence.