Definition of Competent

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.