Can a stockholder of a corporation be disqualified as a witness in a lawsuit brought by the personal representative of the deceased?

9 In a number of states the statutes disqualifying witnesses in a suit prosecuted by or against the personal representative of the decedent, extends the disqualification to "persons interested in the event". It is generally held under such statutes that a stockholder of a corporation which is a party comes within that exclusionary clause. See cases cited in notes 163 A.L.R. p. 1220 and 27 L.R.A.,N.S., p. 819; also Brown v. First Nat. Bank, 49 Colo. 393, 113 P. 483.

10 An examination of the Montana cases indicates that the required foundation testimony must itself be corroborative of the offered testimony of the witness. In Cox v. Williamson, supra, which is apparently the latest decision of the court dealing with this aspect of the Montana dead man's statute, the court held the foundation testimony there given inadequate for while other witnesses had testified to declarations and admissions of the decedent relating to some aspects of the matters to which the survivor proposed to testify, yet they did not testify to the precise contract or agreement which it was sought to establish by the survivor's testimony. The court said in 124 Mont. at page 522, 227 P.2d at page 619: "The trial court should not admit the testimony of such a witness until sufficient other independent testimony has been admitted to warrant the court, in the exercise of its discretion, to render a ruling in favor of the questionable testimony. The court must exercise this discretion with caution and reasonable strictness, and not so loosely as to infringe on the general rule, unless it reasonably appears that otherwise injustice will result, and therefore the exception rather than the rule should apply."