COMPETENCY,
evidence. The legal fitness or ability of a witness to be heard on the
trial of a cause. This term is also applied to written or other evidence
which may be legally given on such trial, as, depositions, letters,
account-books, and the like.
2.
Prima facie every person offered is a competent witness, and must be
received, unless Lis incompetency (q. v.) appears. 9 State Tr. 652.
3.
There is a difference between competency and credibility. A witness may
be competent, and, on examination, his story may be so contradictory
and improbable that he may not be believed; on the contrary he may be
incompetent, and yet be perfectly credible if he were examined.
4.
The court are the sole judges of the competency of a witness, and may,
for the purpose of deciding whether the witness is or is not competent,
ascertain all the facts necessary to form a judgment. Vide 8 Watts, R.
227; and articles Credibility; Incompetency; Interest; Witness.
5.
In the French law, by competency is understood the right in a court to
exercise jurisdiction in a particular case; as, where the, law gives
jurisdiction to the court when a thousand francs shall be in dispute,
the court is competent if, the sum demanded is a thousand francs or
upwards, although the plaintiff may ultimately recover less.
COMPETENT WITNESS.
One who is legally qualified to be heard to testify in a cause. In
Kentucky, Michigan, and Missouri, a will must be attested, for the
purpose of passing lands, by competent witnesses; but if wbolly written
by the testator, in Kentucky, it need not be so attested. See Attesting
witness; Credible witness; Disinterested witness; Respectable witness;
and Witness.
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