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5 Notre Dame Law. 303 (1929-1930)
Parol Evidence Rule

handle is hein.journals/tndl5 and id is 306 raw text is: Parol Evidence Rule By JosEPH UnQuico The term parol is of French origin. Its literal mean- ing is word, or speech. In this sense it is synonymous with the term oral. In practice, however, it also has a conven- tional meaning. As applied to contracts it means not under seal. In other words a parol contract is a simple contract, as distinguished from a contract under seal. It may be in writing, or merely oral. If a contract under seal be subse- quently modified by oral agreement of the parties it will become thereby wholly parol. This has been decided in Mifunroe v. Perkins, 26 Mass. 298. The term parol as used in the law of pleadings, has also a conventional meaning. The pleadings themselves are called the parol; and in some cases the term is used to de- note the entire pleading in the cause. In the law of evidence, the term is also used in conven- tional sense. As used in the phrase Parol Evidence Rule it is synonymous with term verbal as. distinguished from the term oral. These two terms, however, are often in- correctly used and interchangeably. The Parol Evidence Rule, is one of the most ancient rules of evidence of wide application which rests upon the principle that no testimony can be received to contradict, vary, add to, or subtract from the terms of a valid written instrument. The two chief reasons for the rule are: (1) The uncertainty of memory, and (2) The danger of falsehood. The rule is also founded on the long experience, that written evidence is so much more certain and accurate than that which rests in fleeting memory only, that it would be un.- safe, when parties have expressed the terms of their con- tract in writing, to admit weaker evidence to control and vary the stronger, and to show that the parties intended a different contract from that expressed in the writing signed by them. Justice Sewall says, The preference which the law gives to written evidence, when compared with parol testimony, of parol agreements, is the unavoidable result of experience. It is impossible to attain that certainty and exactness in the one form of evidence, which is found in

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