Patterson v. Hughes

Citations

• 236 Pa. 315
• 84 A. 829
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 752

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Witness — Competency—Party dead — Act of June 11, 1891, P. L. 287 — Mortgage.</p> <p>1. A living witness whose competency is to make competent evidence which otherwise would be incompetent, must be called in the interest of and by the person representing the right of the deceased party to the contract or thing in action. The calling of such a witness by the adversary is not within the contemplation of the Act of June 11, 1891, P. L. 287.</p> <p>2. On a scire facias sur mortgage where the mortgagee is dead at the time of the trial, and it appears that the mortgage was given by the mortgagor as security for the debt of her brother to the mortgagee, the brother is a witness with an adverse interest, inasmuch as he will be liable over to the mortgagor if a judgment goes against her on the scire facias; and he is not made a competent witness by the fact that the mortgagor calls as a witness one of the use plaintiffs to whom the mortgage had been assigned, to testify to things happening in the lifetime of the mortgagee; nor in such a ease is the mortgagor competent to testify that she was induced to sign the mortgage by representations made by the attorney of the mortgagee that the brother’s property would be ample to pay his indebtedness. Even if she were competent such evidence would be irrelevant and immaterial. '</p>