59 Kan. 117 | Kan. | 1898
“ This class embraces not only entries in books, but all other declarations or statements of facts, whether verbal or in writing, and whether they were made at the time of the fact declared, or at a subsequent day. But to render them admissible, it must appear that the declarant is deceased, that he possessed competent knowledge of the facts, or that it was his duty to know them ; and that the declarations were at variance with his interest. When these circumstances concur, the evidence is received, leaving its weight and value to be determined by other considerations.”
See also Lax v. Forty-second etc. C. R. R. Co., 14 Jones & Spencer, 448; Stein v. R. R. Co., 10 Phila. 440. It is insisted that the spirit, if not the letter, of section 333 of the Code, General Statutes of 1897, prohibits O’Hara, the superintendent of the railway company, from testifying to a conversation had personally by him with Brantner ; that O’Hara represented the Railway Company, and stands in the relation of a party in this case adverse to the heir at law of a deceased person. Cases are cited where the representative of a corporation who had personally entered into a contract for the corporation with one who afterward died has been held incompetent to testify concerning the transaction in an action between the corporation he represented and the personal representative of the other party to the contract.