SB144: Deceased or incompetent party; admissibility of statements.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 8.01-397 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 8.01-397. Person incapable of testifying; admissibility of statements (subdivision (b)(5) of Supreme Court Rule 2:804 derived from this section).
In an action by or against a person who, from any cause, is
incapable of testifying, or by or against the committee, trustee, executor,
administrator, heir, or other representative of the person so incapable of
testifying, no judgment or decree shall be rendered in favor of an adverse
or interested party founded on his uncorroborated testimony. In any such
action, whether such adverse party testifies or not, all entries, memoranda,
and declarations by the party so incapable of testifying made while he was
capable, relevant to the matter in issue, may be received as evidence in all
proceedings including without limitation those to which a person under a
disability is a party. The phrase "from any cause" as used in this
section shall not include situations in which the party who is incapable of
testifying has rendered himself unable to testify by an intentional
self-inflicted injury.
For the purposes of this section, and in addition to
corroboration by any other competent evidence, an entry authored by an adverse
or interested party contained in a business record may be competent evidence
for corroboration of the testimony of an adverse or interested party. If
authentication of the business record is not admitted in a request for
admission, such business record shall be authenticated by a person other than
the author of the entry who is not an adverse or interested party whose conduct
is at issue in the allegations of the complaint all entries, memoranda,
and declarations by the person so incapable of testifying made while he was
capable, relevant to the matter in issue, shall not be excluded as hearsay.
SENATE BILL NO. 144
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 8.01-397 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.