OATFI IN LITEM. An oath which in the civil law was deferred to the complainant as to the value of the,thing in dispute, on fail ure of other proof, particularly when there was a fraud on the part of the defeodant and he suppressed proof in his possession. See Greenleaf, Ev. 348; Tait, Ev. 280 ; 1 Veru. Ch. 207 ; 1 Eq. Cas. Abr. 229 ; 1 Me. 27 ; 1 Yeates, Penn. 34 ; 12 Viner, Abr. 24.
2. In general, the oath of the party can not, by the common law, be received to esta blish his claim, but is admitted in two classes of cases : first, where it has been already proved that the party against whom it is offered has been guilty of some fraud or other tortious or unwarrantable act of inter meddling with the cemplainant's goods, and no ether evidence can be had of the amount of damages. See 1 Pet. 591 ; 5 id. 240 ; 9 Wheat. 486 ; 5 Pick. Mass. 436 ; 8 id. 278 ; 15 id. 368 ; 16 Johns. N.Y. 193 ; 20 id. 144 ; 17 Ohio, 156 ; 3 N.H. 135. As, for example, where £I trunk of goods was delivered to a shipmaster at one port to be carried to an other, and on the passage be broke the trunk open and rifled it of its contents, in an action by the owners of the goods against the shipmaster, the facts above mentioned having been proved aliunde, the plaintiff was held a competent witness to testify as to the contents of the trunk. 1 Me. 27 ; 11 id. 412.
And see 10 Watts, 335 ; 1 Greenleaf, Ev. 348 ; 12 Mete. Mass. 44 •, 1 Yeates, Penn. 34 ; 2 Watts, Penn. 220 ; 10 id. 335 ; 3 Penn. St. 451 ; 12 Mass. 360 ; 16 id. 118 ; 1 Gilb. Ev. by Lofft, 244. Second, the oath in Went is also admitted on the ground of public policy where it is deemed essential to the purposes of justice. Tait, Ev. 280 ; 1 Pet. 596 ; 6 Mood. 137 ; 2 Strange, 1186. But this oath is admitted only on the ground of necessity. An example may be mentioned of a case where a statute can receive no execution unless the party interested be admitted as a witness. 16 Pet. 203.