cuted, against an executor or administrator upon a claim, or demand against the estate of a deceased person, as to any matter of fact occurring before the death of such deceased person. [Amendment, approved April 16, 1880; in effect immediately.

1. Competency of Witness.-Penal Code, sec. 1321, n. 25, ante.

1881. There are particular relations in which it is the policy of the law to encourage confidence and to preserve it inviolate; therefore, a person can not be examined as a witness in the following cases:

1. A husband can not be examined for or against his wife, without her consent, nor a wife for or against her husband, without his consent; nor can either, during the marriage or afterwards, be, without the consent of the other, examined as to any communication made by one to the other during the marriage; but this exception does not apply to a civil action or proceeding by one against the other, nor to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by one against the other;

2. An attorney can not, without the consent of his client, be examined as to any communication made by the client to him, or his advice given thereon in the course of professional employment;

3. A clergyman or priest can not, without the consent of the person making the confession, be examined as to any confession made to him in his professional character in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he belongs;

4. A licensed physician or surgeon can not, without the consent of his patient, be examined in a civil action as to any information acquired in attending the patient which was necessary to enable him to prescribe or act for the patient;

5. A public officer can not be examined as to communications made to him in official confidence, when the public interests would suffer by the disclosure.

1. Husband or Wife as Witness.-Penal Code, sec. 1322, n. 1, ante. [1882. Repealed by act approved and in effect February 28, 1876. Amendments 1875–6, 105.]

1883. The judge himself, or any juror, may be called as a witness by either party; but in such case it is in the discretion of the court or judge to order the trial to be postponed or suspended, and to take place before another judge or jury.

1884. When a witness does not understand and speak the English language, an interpreter must be sworn to interpret for him. Any person, a resident of the proper county, may be summoned by any court or judge to appear before such court

or judge to act as interpreter in any action or proceeding. The summons must be served and returned in like manner as a subpœna. Any person so summoned, who fails to attend at the time and place named in the summons, is guilty of contempt. 1. Interpreter before Grand Jury.-See "An act in relation to interpreters before grand juries." Ante, p. 256.

CHAPTER III.

WRITINGS.

ARTICLE I. WRITINGS IN GENERAL.

II. PUBLIC WRITINGS.

III. PRIVATE WRITINGS.

ARTICLE I.

WRITINGS IN GENERAL.

SECTION 1887. Writings, public and private. 1888. Public writings defined.

1889. All others private.

1887. Writings are of two kinds:

1. Public; and,

2. Private.

1888. Public writings are:

1. The written acts, or records of the acts, of the sovereign authority, of official bodies, and tribunals, and of public officers, legislative, judicial, and executive, whether of this state, of the United States, of a sister state, or of a foreign country;

2. Public records, kept in this state, of private writings. 1889. All other writings are private.

ARTICLE II.

PUBLIC WRITINGS.

SECTION 1892. Every citizen entitled to inspect and copy public writings. 1893. Public officers bound to give copies.

1894. Four kinds of public writings.

1895. Laws, written or unwritten.

1896. Written laws defined.

1897. Constitution and statutes.

1898. Public and private statutes defined.

1899. Unwritten law defined.

1900. Books containing laws presumed to be correct.

1901. Public seal authenticates a law or document.

1902. Other evidence of laws of other states.

1903. Recitals in statutes, how far evidence.

1904. Judicial record defined.

1905. Record, how authenticated as evidence.

1906. Record of a foreign country, how authenticated.
1907. Oral evidence of a foreign record.

SECTION 1908. Effect of a judgment upon rights in various cases.
1909. Effect of other judicial orders, when conclusive.

1910. Where parties are to be deemed the same.
1911. What deemed adjudged in a judgment.
1912. Where sureties bound, principal is also.
1913. Record of another state, its effect.
1914. Record of court of admiralty.
1915. Effect of a foreign judgment.

1916. Manner of impeaching a record.

1917. The jurisdiction necessary in a judgment.
1918. Manner of proving other official documents.
1919. Public record of private writing evidence.
1920. Entries in official books prima facie evidence.
1921. Justice's judgment in other states, how proved.
1922. Same.

1923. Contents of other official certificates.

1924. Provisions in relation to states apply to territories. 1925. Certificates of purchase primary evidence of ownership. 1926. Entries made by officers or boards prima facie evidence. 1892. Every citizen has a right to inspect and take a copy of any public writing of this state, except as otherwise expressly provided by statute.

1893. Every public officer having the custody of a public writing, which a citizen has a right to inspect, is bound to give him, on demand, a certified copy of it, on payment of the legal fees therefor, and such copy is admissible as evidence in like cases and with like effect as the original writing. [Amendment, approved March 24, 1874: in effect July 1, 1874.

1894. Public writings are divided into four classes:

1. Laws;

2. Judicial records;

3. Other official documents;

4. Public records, kept in this state, of private writings. 1895. Laws, whether organic or ordinary, are either written or unwritten.

1896. A written law is that which is promulgated in writing, and of which a record is in existence.

1897. The organic law is the constitution of government, and is altogether written. Other written laws are denominated statutes. The written law of this state is therefore contained in its constitution and statutes, and in the constitution and statutes of the United States.

1898. Statutes are public or private. A private statute is one which concerns only certain designated individuals, and affects only their private rights. All other statutes are public, in which are included statutes creating or affecting corporations.

1899. Unwritten law is the law not promulgated and recorded, as mentioned in section 1896, but which is, nevertheless, observed and administered in the courts of the country. It has no certain repository, but is collected from the reports of the decisions of the courts, and the treatises of learned men.

1900. Books printed or published under the authority of a sister state or foreign country, and purporting to contain the statutes, code, or other written law of such state or country, or proved to be commonly admitted in the tribunals of such state or country as evidence of the written law thereof, are admissible in this state as evidence of such law.

1901. A copy of the written law or other public writing of any state or country, attested by the certificate of the officer having charge of the original, under the public seal of the state or country, is admissible as evidence of such law or writing. [Amendment, approved March 24, 1874; in effect July 1, 1874.

1902. The oral testimony of witnesses skilled therein is admissible as evidence of the unwritten law of a sister state or foreign country, as are also printed and published books of reports of decisions of the courts of such state or country, or proved to be commonly admitted in such courts.

1903. The recitals in a public statute are conclusive evidence of the facts recited for the purpose of carrying it into effect, but no further. The recitals in a private statute are conclusive evidence between parties who claim under its provisions, but no further.

1904. A judicial record is the record or official entry of the proceedings in a court of justice, or of the official act of a judicial officer, in an action or special proceeding.

1905. A judicial record of this state, or of the United States, may be proved by the, production of the original, or by a copy thereof, certified by the clerk or other person having the legal custody thereof. That of a sister state may be approved by the attestation of the clerk and the seal of the court annexed, if there be a clerk and seal, together with a certificate of the chief judge or presiding magistrate, that the attestation is in due. form.

1906. A judicial record of a foreign country may be proved by the attestation of the clerk, with the seal of the court annexed, if there be a clerk and seal, or of the legal keeper of the record, with the seal of his office annexed, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the chief judge, or presiding magistrate, that the person making the attestation is the clerk

of the court or the legal keeper of the record, and, in either case, that the signature of such person is genuine, and that the attestation is in due form. The signature of the chief judge or presiding magistrate must be authenticated by the certifiacte of the minister or embassador, or a consul, vice-consul, or consular agent of the United States in such foreign country. [Amendment, approved March 24, 1874; in effect July 1, 1874. 1907. A copy of the judicial record of a foreign country is also admissible in evidence, upon proof:

1. That the copy offered has been compared by the witness with the original, and is an exact transcript of the whole of it; 2. That such original was in the custody of the clerk of the court or other legal keeper of the same; and,

3. That the copy is duly attested by a seal which is proved to be the seal of the court where the record remains, if it be the record of a court; or if there be no such seal, or if it be not a record of a court, by the signature of the legal keeper of the original.

1908. The effect of a judgment or final order in an action or special proceeding before a court or judge of this state, or of the United States, having jurisdiction to pronounce the judgment or order, is as follows:

1. In case of a judgment or order against a specific thing, or in respect to the probate of a will, or the administration of the estate of a decedent, or in respect to the personal, political, or legal condition or relation of a particular person, the judgment or order is conclusive upon the title to the thing, the will, or administration, or the condition or relation of the person;

2. In other cases, the judgment or order is, in respect to the matter directly adjudged, conclusive between the parties and their successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action or special proceeding, litigating for the same thing under the same title and in the same capacity; provided, they have notice, actual or constructive, of the penddency of the action or proceeding. [Amendment, approved March 24, 1874; in effect July 1, 1874.

1909. Other judicial orders of a court or judge of this state, or of the United States, create a disputable presumption, according to the matter directly determined, between the same parties and their representatives and successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action or special proceeding, litigating for the same thing under the same title and in the same capacity.