Bunn v. Todd
| Decision Date | 27 October 1890 |
| Citation | 11 S.E. 1043,107 N.C. 266 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | Bunn . v. Todd. |
Witness—Transactions with Deceased Persons.
Under Code N. C. § 590, disqualifying parties, and those interested in the event of the suit, from testifying against the representative of a deceased person concerning any personal communication or transaction between the witness and deceased, a person not a party, nor interested in the event of the suit, may testify as to such transaction or communication.
Appeal from district court, Wake county; MacRae, Judge.
W. N. Jones, for plaintiff.
I. J. Flemming, for defendant.
Clark, J. Section 589 of the Code broadly sweeps away the common-law incompetency of witnesses on account of interest. Section 590 contains the only restrictions in civil cases, except in the special cases provided for by section 580 and section 588, upon the competency of witnesses. It disqualifies—Whom: (I) Parties to the action; (2) persons interested in the event of the action; (3) persons through or under whom the persons in the first two classes derive their title or interest. A witness belonging to one of these three classes is incompetent only in the following cases: When. To testify in behalf of himself or the person succeeding to his title or interest against the representative of a deceased person or committee of a lunatic, or any one deriving his title or interest through them. And the disqualification of such person, and in such instances, is restricted to the following subject-matter: A personal transaction or communication between the witness and the person since deceased or lunatic. And even in those cases there are the following exceptions: (1) When the representative of, or person claiming through or under the deceased person or lunatic is examined in his own behalf, or (2) the testimony of the deceased person or lunatic is given in evidence concerning the same transaction. Originally this section (then section 343 of Code Civil Proc.) disqualified a fourth class of persons; i. e., those who had an interest in the subject-matter of the suit, but whose interest has since ceased. This disqualification did not exist at common law, and was struck out of this section by the Code of 1883, except when such persons still come under the third class of disqualified persons above stated. To except a witness from the general rule of section 589, rendering witnesses competent, all these things must concur. If the witness does not belong to one of the...
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Price v. Edwards
... ... 381); and the witness was ... competent as he was testifying against his own interest. He ... is not disqualified in such a case. Bunn v. Todd, ... 107 N.C. 266, 11 S.E. 1043, Tredwell v. Graham, 88 ... N.C. 208, Weinstein v. Patrick, 75 N.C. 344, and ... Seals v. Seals, ... ...
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Rape v. Lyerly
...between himself and Mr. Jim. For conditions prerequisite to the disqualification of a witness under G.S. § 8--51, see Bunn v. Todd, 107 N.C. 266, 11 S.E. 1043 (1890); Peek v. Shook, 233 N.C. 259, 261, 63 S.E.2d 542, 543 (1951); Sanderson v. Paul, Supra, 235 N.C. at 58--59, 69 S.E.2d at 158;......
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Fidelity Bank v. Wysong & Miles Co., Inc.
...and the person since deceased, whose representative is a party to the action. The exception to this rule of exclusion stated in Bunn v. Todd, supra, does not apply the facts of this case. That the suit must be prosecuted against the representative of a deceased person, which is the capital ......
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Brown v. Adams
...75 N. C. 191; Loftin v. Loftin, 96 N. C. 99, 1 S. E. 837; McCall v. Wilson, 101 N. C. 600, 8 S. E. 225; Bunn v. Todd, 107 N. 0. 266, 11 S. E. 1043; Johnson v. Cameron, 136 N. C. 244, 48 S. E. 640. We will now consider these cases, and show that not one of them applies, but that each and all......