Wiggins Turpentine Co. v. Calamity Land Co.

Citations

• 109 Miss. 628
• 68 So. 919

Syllabus

<p>Witnesses. Competency. Transactions with decedent. Officers and stockholders of corporations.</p> <p>Under Code 1906, section 1917, providing that a person shall not testify as a witness to establish his claim against the estate of a decedent, which originated during the lifetime of the decedent, where a corporation sues a defendant corporation for damages to its timber. The president of the plaintiff corporation who owns all of its stock is not an incompetent witness to testify that the president of the defendant corporation who owned fifty per cent of its capital stock,'and who died before suit, had applied to him for the privilege of working the timber for turpentine, which had been refused. Since the suit is not based on a claim between the two presidents as individuals but is a suit between two corporations and the statute was designed for the protection of natural persons and will not be enlarged to cover transactions between artificial persons.</p>