Dead Man's Act- Discovery Deps
The Dead Man's Act provides: "In the trial of any action in which any party sues or defends as the representative of a deceased person . . ., no adverse person directly interested in the action shall be allowed to testify on his or her own behalf to any conversation with the deceased . . . or to any event which took place in the absence of the deceased. . ." 735 ILCS 5/8-201. The purpose is to level the playing field and remove the temptation of a survivor to testify to matters that could not be rebutted because of death to the only other witness to an event.
In the case of Balma and Gallup v. Henry and Grosvenor, the Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, was asked to determine whether or not admissions made by defendants in their discovery depositions were barred by the Dead Man's Act. The defendants had previously each submitted to a discovery deposition and provided information about the auto accident. Mr. Henry died a short time later and his estate filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the discovery depositions failed to establish negligence and the Dead Man's Act would preclude the plaintiffs and co-defendant from testifying about the collision. The trial court granted the motion and then granted plaintiff's motion for interlocutory appeal.
The appeals court, after noting Supreme Court Rule 212(a)(2), ruled that the statements made by the deceased defendant were not barred by the Dead Man's Act stating " ...after a party's death the evidentiary rules regarding admissions do not change simply because an admission is contained in a discovery deposition.
