DEAD MAN’S STATUTE:

    The “Dead Man’s Statute” provides that if one party to the alleged transaction is precluded from testifying by death, insanity, or other mental disabilities, the surviving party is not entitled to the undue advantage of giving his own uncontradicted and unexplained account of the transaction. But before this rule can be successfully invoked to bar the introduction of testimonial evidence, it is necessary that:  1.  The witness is a party or assignor of a party to a case or persons in whose behalf a case is prosecuted; 2.  The action is against an executor or administrator or other representative of a deceased person or a person of unsound mind; 3.  The subject-matter of the action is a claim or demand against the estate of such deceased person or against person of unsound mind; and 4.  His testimony refers to any matter of fact which occurred before the death of such deceased person or before such person became of unsound mind.” Well entrenched is the rule that when it is the executor or administrator or representatives of the estate that sets up the counterclaim, the plaintiff, herein respondent, may testify to occurrences before the death of the deceased to defeat the counterclaim. Moreover, as defendant in the counterclaim, respondent is not disqualified from testifying as to matters of fact occurring before the death of the deceased, said action not having been brought against but by the estate or representatives of the deceased. (Sunga-Chan vs. Chua, G.R. No. 143340, August 15, 2001, Gonzaga-Reyes, J.).