Page:United States Reports, Volume 24.djvu/290

282 same, and retained counsel to defend the same, and received the rents and profits thereof during its progress; which last mentioned evidence the Court refused to admit; and the plaintiffs excepted to the refusal.

The plaintiffs then offered to prove the same facts, (not saying by parol evidence,) with the additional fact that counsel did defend the same action for the benefit of the defendant. This evidence was also rejected by the Court, and constituted the third exception of the plaintiffs.

The fourth exception taken by the plaintiffs, related to the proper parties to the action. The original plaintiffs in the suit were Anthony Taurin Chirac, Mathew Chapus, and Anna Maria his wife, Mathew Thevenon and Maria his wife, and Maria Bonfils, the same persons having been plaintiffs in the ejectment. Pending the suit, the plaintiffs obtained leave to amend their declaration, and amended it, by introducing the name of John B. E. Bitarde Desportes, as husband of the said Maria, called, at the commencement of this suit, Maria Bonfils. No objection was taken to this amendment, and the defendant pleaded the general issue to the declaration so amended. The evidence of title of John B. Chirac, deceased, having been introduced, and, also, evidence to prove that Anthony T. Chirac, and the female plaintiffs, were heirs at law of John B. Chirac, the defendant prayed the Court to instruct the jury, that they ought to find a verdict for the defendant, unless they were satisfied that all the plaintiffs were the proper heirs at law