Chapter 42 - § 42.3 • PURPOSE OF DEAD MAN'S STATUTE

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 42.3 • PURPOSE OF DEAD MAN'S STATUTE

When the common law was changed so that a party to the litigation could testify on his or her own behalf, it became obvious that if the other party to the litigation were dead, the living party had an opportunity to slant the evidence in his or her favor, if not to manufacture it outright. This, of course, gave rise to serious temptations to perjury, as a result of which the estates of deceased persons and others who stood in the shoes of decedents could be put at a serious disadvantage. In substance, since the lips of the decedent were closed by death, the dead man's statute balances the scales by sealing the lips of the adverse party, except in certain cases in which the scales are more evenly balanced by reason of the presence at the transaction of a person...