Opinion
December Term, 1824.
1. Witnesses should swear to their attendance at each term, and the ticket should state the number of days attendance at each term.
2. A witness who attends court without a subpoena to him is not entitled to prove his attendance so as to charge the losing party with the amount of his witness ticket.
HAYWOOD produced a notice to the plaintiff of an intended motion by defendant for a rule to show cause wherefore there should not be a new taxation of costs in this case. It was an ejectment in which, at the last term, there was a judgment for the plaintiff, ante, 51; and it appeared that the clerk had taxed the defendant with the costs of several of the plaintiffs' witnesses who had proved their attendance by tickets obtained on oath without specifying the particular term or terms at which they attended, and also without setting out the number of days attendance at each court.
It also appeared that defendant was taxed with the costs of one of plaintiff's witnesses for whom no subpoena appeared among the records below.
After argument by Haywood, the court granted the rule; and afterwards made it absolute, ordering the clerk to expunge from the bill of costs such of plaintiff's witness tickets as were liable to the first objection; and to issue a notice to the witness for whom no subpoena appeared, remarking that he ought to have an opportunity of accounting for the subpoena if any existed, and that if he had attended the court as a witness without having been summoned, his tickets must be expunged also.
Motion allowed.
Cited: Belden v. Snead, 84 N.C. 245; Stern v. Herren, 101 N.C. 518.
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