89 N.J.L. 399 | N.J. | 1916
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This suit is to recover the proceeds of certain pension checks which were endorsed by the pensioner,, defendant’s father, to the defendant. The endorsement of the checks and the receipt of the money by the defendant are admitted. The executor’s claim is that the defendant was to collect and hold the money for his father. The jury found to the contrary, and the only question before us is the admissibility of evidence. The checks were delivered on the various quarter days, from May, 1911, to November, 1913. The plaintiff sought to prove a verbal statement by the father in February, 1912, not in the presence of the defendant and not contemporaneous with the giving of any, check, with reference to the checks and the pension money. Confessedly, the object was to show by the father’s declaration that the checks had not been endorsed to the defendant as a gift, and that the father, the plaintiff’s testator, still retained the beneficial interest therein. The evidence was excluded and the question now is, was it admissible? The case differs from cases where there is a dispute as to whether the acts were performed—for example, whether a decedent was in a certain place (Hunter v. State, 40 N. J. L. 495), or whether a will was made (State v. Ready, 78 Id. 599), and from cases where the declaration is not self-serving. We are referred to Speer v. Speer, 14 N. J. Eq. 240. The question in that case was whether declarations of a grantor subsequent to a conveyance were competent evidence to prove that the conveyance was by way of advancement. Chancellor Green was careful to say that such declarations would be clearly incompetent to invalidate the title of the grantee. That is, in part, the very object with which they are here offered. As to past acts the
We bind no error and the judgment is affirmed.