Persse

By the Court,

The respondents, residents of New York, on the 10th day of December, 1849, sold to one Augustus Belknap twenty-six boxes of paper for the sum of $1498,63 payable by promissory note at six months. The boxes were shipped by respondents on the ship Washington, for San Francisco, of which the defendant Cole was master, to be delivered at San Francisco to the order of the shippers. Bel-knap having paid most of the freight of the Washington, the defendant delivered the boxes to him. The agent of the plaintiffs, to whose order the goods were ordered to be delivered, holding the bill of lading, subsequently tendered to defendant the freight and demanded the delivery of the boxes. This action was brought for the value of the goods, and a judgment was recovered for the full value thereof at the port of delivery; from which an appeal is prosecuted to this court.

Whether the court erred in allowing testimony to contradict the witness Belknap, and in finally ruling out the testimony of Belknap, is not material, inasmuch as we do not think the result would be changed by the admission of Belknap’s testimony.

The facts appear to be (with or without Belknap’s testimony) that the…