Devoe ex rel. Devoe v. Singleton

Fowler, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Issues involving the validity of the will of the late William L. Wheeler were sent from the Orphans’ Court of Harford County to the Circuit Court thereof, to be tried before a jury, and during the trial three exceptions were taken by the plaintiffs to the rulings of the Court below as ⁷¹ to the admissibility of certain testimony. In regard to the first exception it is sufficient to say that even assuming that there was error in allowing the witness, Michael, to answer the question as to whether the testator was competent in the opinion of the witness to execute a valid deed or contract at the time of the execution of the will, yet the answer is absent from the record, and it is therefore impossible for us to know what it was. It may have been either injurious or beneficial to the plaintiffs.

The answer of the witness not having been set forth in the bill of exceptions, it does not appear that the plaintiffs were injured thereby. In order to justify a reversal there must be both error and injury apparent from the record. Lawson v. Price, 45 Md. 123 ; Turnpike Co. v. Crowther, 63 Md. 558 ; Same v. State, 63 Md. 578 , and Commissioners of Calvert County v. Gantt, Tax Collector, not yet reported—see 28 Alt. Rep. 101.

In the case last cited we held