404. At any stage of the case, the parties may agree, or the court, if it sees fit to do so, may permit that a witness be heard out of court, provided that all the parties are present or duly summoned.
Depositions must in that case be made by way of affidavits sufficiently detailed to establish all the facts necessary to support the conclusions sought or be taken down by stenography or in handwriting before a person authorized to administer oaths and be filed in the record to have the same force and effect as if they had been taken at the hearing.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the court cannot maintain an application for the annulment of a marriage or a civil union nor, where the defendant has filed a defence, an application for separation from bed and board or divorce or for the dissolution of a civil union unless the evidence of the plaintiff has been given before the court.
1965 (1st sess.), c. 80, a. 404; 1968, c. 84, s. 4; 1982, c. 17, s. 16; 1986, c. 85, s. 2; 1988, c. 17, s. 3; 2002, c. 6, s. 99.