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11 Ala. 249

Locke v. Noland

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1847

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1847-01-15

The defendants in error produced a paper, which they al-ledge to be the last will of Philip Noland, which they petitioned the court to admit to probate. This was contested by the plaintiff in error, and an issue being made, and submitted to a jury, they found in favor of the petitioners, and thereupon the will was admitted to probate.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently June 1849

1 state decisions

Relies on Goodwin ex rel. Hale v. Harrison · Houston v. Prewitt · Powell v. Powell

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1847-01-15

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ORMOND, J.

¶1This is an attempt on the part of the witnesses, to establish by their own testimony, a right transferred by them, to their own children, to a distributive share of their grand-father’s estate, which right is derived from them; the release, as it is called, being nothing less than a transfer of all the interest of Mrs. Harben in her father’s estate. This is the precise point decided in Powell v. Powell, 7 Ala. 584, and is also within the influence of other decisions of this court, which hold that it is contrary to public policy, to permit a witness to establish by his own testimony, a claim derived from himself. [Houston v. Prewit, 8 Ala. 846; Goodwin v. Harrison, 6 Ala. 438.]

¶2We have not thought it necessary to inquire whether, as contended, this conveyance is not sufficient to convey the interest of Mrs. Harben and her husband in her father’s estate. Conceding it to be so, it is most manifest, they are really as deeply interested, as if they were contestants upon the record. If the transfer were to a stranger, and’for a valuable consideration, they would not be competent witnesses to establish the claim derived from themselves; still less can they be so in this case, where the transfer is to their own children, and without consideration. In such a case, whatever may have been the motive, in estimation of law, it is merely col-orable.

¶3The witnesses being properly rejected, the judgment of the court must be affirmed.

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