The general rule in regard to proof of documents is that the original shall be produced unless required to remain in some public office. If it belongs in such office it can be proved by an exemplification of the records.34 This general rule, however, has been modified by the statute in Michigan so that all conveyances and other instruments authorized by law to be filed or recorded and which shall be acknowledged and proved according to law, a duly certified copy of such instruments may be read in evidence in any court without further proof. Under this section of the statute, regardless of whether or not the original of the contract may be in possession of the party offering such certified copy, such copy is nevertheless admissible in evidence under the provisions of the statutes.35

30. Healey v. Worth, 35 Mich. 166.

31. Aultman Miller & Co., Supra.

32. Mier v. Hadden, 148 Mich. 492.

33. Lumbering Company v. Powell, 120 Mich. 58.

34. Bradley v. Silsbee, 33 Mich. 330; Brown v. Cady, 11 Mich. 537.

35. All conveyances and other instruments authorized by law to be filed or recorded and which shall be acknowledged or proved according to law, and if the same shall have been filed or recorded, the record of a transcript of the record, or a copy of the instrument on file certified by the officer in whose office the same may have been filed or recorded, may be read in evidence in any court within this state without further proof thereof; but the effect of such evidence may be rebutted by other competent testimony. C. L. 1915 (12508).