Adams v. Board of Trustees of Internal Improvement Fund

Citations

• 37 Fla. 266

Syllabus

<p>WITNESS—WHEN DISQUALIFIED FROM INTEREST IN EVENT OP SUIT— EVIDENCE—REFRESHING MEMORY FROM MEMORANDA—WHEN ASSETS ARE ADMINISTERED BEYOND THE REACH OF SUCCEEDING ADMINISTRATORS—POSSESSION AS PROOF OF OWNERSHIP OF PERSONALTY.</p> <p>1. Section 24, p. 518, McClellan’s Digest, brought forward as section 1095 of the Revised Statutes, was originally adopted here from the civil code of the State of New York. Its purpose was to enlarge—not to restrict—the competency of witnesses. The expression “interest in the event,” as used in the proviso to this statute, was never intended to enlarge the class: to be excluded under it beyond that which the common law-excluded in using the same language. Under the stringent, rules of the common law all persons who were interested in the event of a suit were disqualified from testifying therein,, whether their antagonists in interest were living or dead. The purpose of this statute was to remove this common-law disability arising from interest in the event of litigation, except in cases where one of the parties to any “ transaction or communication” was, at the time of the examination, dead or insane. In the latter cases the disabilities arising from interest in the event that were imposed by the common law are, by this statute, retained. But in such cases the statute disqalifies those only who were disqualified by the general rule-of the common law. Any exception from the disqualification! that was recognized by the rules of the common law, forms a like exception to the cases intended to be excluded by the proviso to this statute, If the witness was competent by the common law, he is competent also under the proviso to this-statute, and vice versa,</p> <p>2. The true test of the interest of a witness under the proviso to-this statute is whether he will either gain or lose by the direct legal operation and effect of the judgment, or whether the record in the case will be legal evidence, for or against him,, in some other action. It must