Handwritten ledger can’t be admitted

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted March 18, 2020 2:16 PM

Trying to avoid the Dead Man’s Act (Section 8-201 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure) when he submitted claims against his son and daughter-in-law’s estates for repayment of $223,529 he doled out over 12 years, Wayne Crawford relied on a three-page handwritten document — which he allegedly used to contemporaneously record disbursements to Kevin and Anita Crawford before they died in an auto accident — and the statutory exception that Section 8-401 of the code provides for a claim that “is …

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