Duly qualified; answering all requirements; adequate; suitable; sufficient; capable; legally fit. Competent and omitted. In Scotch practice. A term applied to a plea which might have been urged by a party during the dependence of a cause, but which had been omitted. Bell. Competent authority. As applied to courts and public officers, this term imports jurisdiction and due legal authority to deal with the particular matter in question. Mitchel v. TJ. 9 Pet 735 9 L. Ed. 283; Charles v. Charles, 41 Minn. 201, 42 N. W. 935. Competent evidence. That which the very nature of the thing to be proven requires, as the production of a writing where its contents are the subject of inquiry. 1 Greenl. Ev.