Competent

Fit; qualified; lawful. Thus, "competent authority" is held«to mean lawful authority (8 Pet. [U. S.] 449). A "competent court," one having jurisdiction. 1 C. P. Div. 176. COiVIPETENT AND OIVIITTED.

In Scotch practice. A term applied to a plea which might have been urged by a party during the dependence of a cause, but which had been omitted. Bell, Diet. COiVIPETENT PERSON. The expression "competent person" means ordinarily a person free from legal disqualification, and does not refer to the ability or experience of such person. 245 111. 50. COiVIPETENT WITNESS. One who is legally qualified to be heard to testify in a cause.

Able, fit, qualified; authorized or capable to act Abb. L. Diet; as competent court; 1 C. P. D. 17G; competent evidence; Chapman v. Mc Adams, 1 Lea (Tenn.) 504; competent persons, 5 Ad. & El. 75; competent cleric, Porter v. Duglass, 27 Miss. 393.

Duly qualified; answering all requirements; adequate; suiteble; sufficient; capable; legally fit. Levee Dist. v. Jamison, 176 Mo. 557, 75 S. W. 679.

— Competent and omitted. In Scotch practice. A term applied to a plea which might have been urged by a party during the dependence of a cause, but which had been omitted. Bell.

— Competent authority. As applied to courts and public officers, this term imports jurisdiction and due legal authority to deal with the particular matter in question. Mitchel v. U. S., 9 Pet. 735, 9 L. Ed. 283; Charles v. Charles, 41 Minn. 201, 42 N. W. 935

— Competent evidence. That which the very nature of the thing to be proven requires, as the production of a writing where its contents are the subject of inquiry. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 2; Chapman v. McAdams, 1 Lea (Tenn.) 500; Horbach v. State, 43 Tex. 242; Porter v. Valentine, 18 Misc. Rep. 213, 41 N. Y. Supp. 507.

— Compel tent witness. One who is legally qualified to be heard to testify in a cause. Hogan v. Sherman, 5 Mich. 60; People v. Compton, 123 Cal. 403, 56 Pac. 44; Com. v. Mullen, 97 Mass. 545. See Competency.

v. Competency.

In Scots law. Competent and omitted: a plea which might have been urged, by a party but was omitted.

Answering the requirement of the law; legally able, fit, or qualified: also, proper or admissible as evidence. Whence compet-ency; incompetent, incompetency. A judge is said to be incompetent to hear a cause in which he is interested; and an infant, or a married woman, incompetent to contract for an article not a necessary. All witnesses that have their reason, except such as are infamous, or, at common law, are interested in the event of the cause, are competent, but the jin-y must judge of their credibility,^ q. v. Competency is a question for the court. Every witness is presumed to be competent. Oi'dinarily, incompetency is to be objected to when first known or discovered — before the witness is sworn and his testimony found to be unfavorable.' See further Evidence, Competent; Witness.