New York Court of Appeals December 5, 1855 (Butler v. . Patterson)

The action in this case was brought to foreclose a mortgage executed by the defendant to Samuel Butler, the plaintiff's intestate, in his lifetime. A question of fact arose upon the trial before a referee upon which oral testimony was competent to be heard; and upon that question the plaintiff called one of the children of Samuel Butler, as a witness on her behalf, who was received and permitted