Opinion ID: 1283524
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Questions of Evidence

Text: The Special Referee treated as competent the testimony of F. Buyck McLauchlin and Lawrence McLauchlin, which was objected to by defendants upon the ground that they were interested parties within the meaning of Section 26-402, Code of 1952. The position taken was that the interest of these nephews of testatrix in the residuary estate would be protected against a possible claim for services if plaintiffs should prevail in this action. The authority relied upon is Roe v. Harrison , 9 S.C. 279. The objection has probably been waived. However, I think that the witnesses were competent. The language relied upon from the Roe case , when considered in the light of the opinion in Riddle v. George , 181 S.C. 360, 187 S.E. 524, must be construed to mean that a witness is disqualified only when there is a possibility that his interest may be affected by the direct legal operation and effect of the judgment. The possibility on which the objection was based falls without the rule. The Special Referee likewise treated as competent the testimony of certain of defendants' witnesses as to statements made by Mrs. Keller which were objected to on the ground that they constituted self-serving declarations. These objections have been reserved by exceptions. With the probable exception of the conversation related by Mrs. Ada McLauchlin, which took place after the execution of the inconsistent will, I think that the objections were properly overruled. To establish their case, plaintiffs relied upon testimony as to statements made by Mrs. Keller during and before the period of performance. Of necessity, the weight and sufficiency of this testimony should be tested in the light of other statements made by her during the same period. Conceivably the tendency of one statement by a person since deceased to establish a contract might be rebutted entirely by amplification or explanation in another statement. It would be a dangerous rule which, under the circumstances appearing here, admitted the one and excluded the other. The plaintiffs before the Special Referee sought to require production by Honorable L.M. Gressette of copies of certain former wills of Mrs. Keller which he had prepared as her attorney. Defendants objected principally upon the ground that to require production of these copies would violate the rule of privilege as to confidential communications between attorney and client. Under circumstances which will be disclosed by the record, these copies were produced before me so as to give plaintiffs an opportunity to make an offer of proof, subject however to all objections previously made to their admissibility. These prior wills made no reference to a contract and have not been considered by me in deciding that one did exist. It is, therefore, unnecessary for me to pass upon the interesting and difficult question of whether their production was compellable. The issues upon which their right to the relief sought having been resolved in favor of plaintiffs; and the one-half undivided interest of W. Frank McLauchlin in the property described in the complaint having been inherited by the plaintiff, Myrtis McLauchlin, and the substituted plaintiff, W. Frank McLauchlin, Jr., in equal shares: It is ordered, adjudged and decreed: 1. That the said Myrtis McLauchlin is now the equitable owner of an undivided three-fourths interest in the real estate described in the complaint in this action, and that the said W. Frank McLauchlin, Jr., is the equitable owner of a one-fourth undivided interest therein. 2. That the defendants, L. Marion Gressette, Ernest Whetstone, L.M. Able, Cecil Smoak and B.S. Robinson, as Trustees of the First Baptist Church of St. Matthews, South Carolina, do, within twenty days after written notice of the filing of this Decree, make, execute and deliver to the Clerk of this Court a deed conveying in fee simple the property described in the complaint to the said Myrtis McLauchlin and W. Frank McLauchlin, Jr., as tenants in common in the proportions above set forth; and the said Clerk, upon their demand therefor, shall deliver the said deed to the grantees. November 12, 1953.