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116 Miss. 726

Helm v. Sheeks

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1917

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1917-10-15

- Hon. Albert Y. Woodward, Chancellor. Proceeding by Mrs. M. T. Helm to probate a will. Mrs. W. B. Sheeks and others filed a caveat.. Prom a judgment for the latter, the former appeals. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Relies on Whitehead v. Kirk · Tucker v. Whitehead · Kelly v. Miller

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1917-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently August 1977 · most notably Fortenberry v. Herrington (1940), Tyson v. Utterback (1929)

30 state decisions

1301917192019301940195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Smith, C. J.

¶1(concurring). The facts sought to be proven by Mrs. Helm existed, if at all, prior to the death of the testatrix, and,' if proven, will establish the validity of the will and consequently of the claim thereunder of the witness to the estate of the testatrix, so that the question here presented comes squarely within the rule announced in Whitehead v. Kirk, 104 Miss., at page 822, 61 So. 737, 62 So. 432, 51 L. R. A. (N. S.) 187 Ann. Cas. 1916A, 1051, and followed in Cooper v. Bell, 114 Miss. 766, 75 So. 767, which is that:

“Whenever a witness is offered for the purpose of proving any transaction, act, contract, admission, license, condition, etc. (whatever may be its exact nature), as ‘a fact to be proven,’ and proven as a fact existing or occurring prior to the death, and the proof of such fact as then existing or occurring is determinative of a claim or right of such witness to or in property of the deceased, and establishes, such claim or right directly and finally, there the witness is testifying to establish his claim which originated during the lifetime of such deceased.”

¶2*743The cases of Kelly v. Miller, 39 Miss. 17; Tucker v. Whitehead, 59 Miss. 594; Covington v. Frank, 77 Miss. 606, 27 So. 1000; and Jamison v. Jamison, 92 Miss. 468, 46 So. 83, 945, here relied upon to support the competency of the witness, were all reviewed in Whitehead v. Kirk, and what was there said by the court in pointing out that they are not. in conflict with the conclusion there reached applies with equal force here.

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