Lewis v. Meginniss

Citations

• 30 Fla. 419

Syllabus

<p>1. In a suit against an executor to recover commissions on sums of money collected by the plaintiff for the executor’s testator in his lifetime, after the establishment by proper proof of an agency to collect money for said testator, it is competent for the plaintiff to testify as to the amount of money collected, and also, in the absence of an express agreement fixing the amount of compensation, as to what is a reasonable compensation for collecting the same. This would not be testifying to a transaction or communication with the deceased, and prohibited by the statute.</p> <p>2. Books of account of either party in which charges and entries have been originally made are admissible in evidence, their credibility to be judged of by the jury; but before such books are admissible in evidence, they are to be submitted to the in - spection of the trial judge, accompanied with proof that the entries therein were made by the party contemporaneous with the transactions therein recorded, in due course of business, and if they exhibit a fair register of the daily business of the party, and appear to have been honestly and regularly kept, they should be submitted in evidence to be considered by the jury.</p> <p>3. In suits against the estates of deceased persons, a plaintiff or party in interest is not prohibited by the provisions of Chapter 1983, Acts of 1874, R. S., section 1095, excluding certain parties from testifying against tlie estates of deceased persons, from accompanying the offer of books of original entry in evidence, with a suppletory oath that the books so offered are the books of original entry of the contemporaneous transactions therein set down of the party in whose behalf they are offered.</p> <p>4. It is well-settled as a principle of law that where one performs services for another at his -request, or where services are rendered by one person for another without his expressed request, but with his knowledge and under circumstances which give rise to the