Griffin v. Stadler's Administrators

Citations

• 35 Tex. 695

Syllabus

<p>1. The issue in this case being whether a decedent had, in his lifetime, made a gift to the defendants of certain notes for which this suit was brought against them by the decedent’s administrators, and the defendants having adduced at the trial below evidence sufficient, if not rebutted, to establish the gift, the question now considered is, whether the court below erred in permitting the plaintiffs to defeat the gift by evidence of declarations of the decedent, not part of the res gestea nor made in the presence of the defendants. This court reviews the adjudications on the subject, and admits their inconsistency, but on the weight of authority holds that the declarations were not competent evidence, and that the court below erred in admitting them.</p> <p>2. If a combination to defraud, alleged against a defendant and his wife, was first established by proof, then the admissions of either of them were competent evidence against the other. The laws regulating marital relations do not shield a married woman from her own fraudulent acts.</p> <p>3. The plaintiffs having accepted twelve jurors, the whole panel was tendered to the defendants, who challenged one juror, and then asked that his place be supplied before they be required to pass further on the panel. But the court below required them to pass at once upon the remaining jurors, before the panel should he filed by the sheriff. Quaere: Is this the correct practice?</p>