New York's Dead Man's Statute, codified in CPLR 4519, precludes a party to an action from testifying as to communications or transactions concerning an adversary's decedent. It can have significant impact in medical malpractice actions where the deceased was either a physician whose estate is a defendant in the action or the patient whose estate is the plaintiff. Because the preclusion of such evidence can be hugely consequential, whether a defendant or a plaintiff, litigants entitled to its protection are typically very grateful for the Dead Man's Statute. This column discusses the Dead Man's Statute and decisional law addressing its potential application in both circumstances.

Distilled to its essence for the purposes of this discussion, CPLR 4519 provides: