Opinion ID: 1786713
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The deed was never executed by complainant.

Text: All of the evidence was taken before a commissioner. Accordingly, no presumption is to be indulged in favor of the trial court's findings from the evidence. It is our duty to sit in judgment on the evidence as though presented to us de novo. Redwine v. Jackson, 254 Ala. 564, 569, 49 So.2d 114; Butler v. Guaranty Savings & Loan Ass'n, 251 Ala. 449, 450, 37 So.2d 638. We here note that at the time of taking the testimony both Mathew Porter and the attorney who prepared, witnessed and acknowledged the deed, were deceased. Therefore, in sitting in judgment on the evidence we must exclude from consideration any evidence rendered inadmissible by the so-called Dead Man's Statute, Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 433. This statute provides as follows: In civil suits and proceedings, there must be no exclusion of any witness because he is a party, or interested in the issue tried, except that no person having a pecuniary interest in the result of the suit or proceeding shall be allowed to testify against the party to whom his interest is opposed, as to any transaction with, or statement by, the deceased person whose estate is interested in the result of the suit or proceeding, or when such deceased person, at the time of such transaction or statement, acted in any representative or fiduciary relation whatsoever to the party against whom such testimony is sought to be introduced, unless called to testify thereto by the party to whom such interest is opposed, or unless the testimony of such deceased person in relation to such transaction or statement is introduced in evidence by the party whose interest is opposed to that of the witness, or has been taken and is on file in the cause. No person who is an incompetent witness under this section shall make himself competent by transferring his interest to another.