Angelopoulos v. Wise

336 P.2d 739, 139 Colo. 82, 1959 Colo. LEXIS 406
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMarch 9, 1959
DocketNo. 18,127
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 336 P.2d 739 (Angelopoulos v. Wise) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Angelopoulos v. Wise, 336 P.2d 739, 139 Colo. 82, 1959 Colo. LEXIS 406 (Colo. 1959).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Sutton

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is the second appearance of this action in this court. In a former proceeding a judgment against plaintiff in error was reversed and a new trial ordered in consequence of remarks of the trial court to the jury amounting to comments on the evidence.- Angelopoulos v. Wise (1956), 133 Colo. 133, 293 P. (2d) 294. A second trial resulted in a like verdict and judgment, and the plaintiff in error, respondent below, is here on writ of error seeking reversal. We refer to the parties as they appeared in the trial court or by name.

In. a petition filed in the juvenile court of the City and County of Denver on July 9, 1954, respondent was charged with fathering the unborn child of Velma May Wise, and with failing to provide support, medical ..attention and hospital care for the mother. On the .second trial, as on the first, the issues were submitted to a jury which returned a verdict finding respondent to be . the fafher of petitioner’s child and guilty of contributing.-.to [84]*84its dependency. Judgment was entered in accordance with the verdict.

Respondent assigns numerous errors as grounds for reversal, which may be grouped under three main points: 1. Sufficiency of the evidence. 2. Admission of objectionable evidence. 3. Giving and refusal of Instructions.

1. Velma May Wise, the mother of the child, testified to a single act of intercourse with the respondent on or about March 26, 1954, resulting in pregnancy and the birth of the child on December 27, 1954. She testified that she had known the respondent since the latter part of January 1954, and thereafter saw him frequently; that she was attending business school and it was respondent’s custom to call her on the telephone nearly every day and on his free days to meet her after school. On these occasions they would visit the parks, attend picture shows and otherwise properly amuse themselves. On the day in question, a dreary misty day in March 1954, it being a Friday and respondent’s day off, the parties met as she left school and drove about in his automobile. They went to a bank where he deposited his pay check, drove around some more and ultimately arrived at Cheesman Park in Denver; that it was then about dusk and they parked near the pavilion. There being no other persons about they became amorous, finally abandoned all restraint, culminating in an act of sexual intercourse. Afterward the respondent’s car refused to start, its battery being dead, and after unsuccessful efforts to start it, the parties walked to a drugstore at 9th Avenue and Downing Street, where Velma May called her brother who agreed to pick her up. After waiting some time for the brother to appear, respondent returned to his car, first requesting Velma May to call him as soon as she returned home so that he would know she had arrived safely. When her brother arrived he and Velma May drove to the place where respondent’s car had been parked, intending to assist him in getting it started, but [85]*85he was not there, having obtained the help of others and departed. She later telephoned him of her safe arrival as agreed. On the next day, a Saturday, they attended a picture show together and on Sunday following drove to the mountains. Early in April symptoms of pregnancy began to manifest themselves, and the respondent upon being informed thereof advised her to see a doctor. She said that plans of marriage were discussed, and the parties went apartment looking.

On May 17, 1954, the respondent drove Velma May to a physician’s office, where she was examined and the fact of her pregnancy confirmed. The respondent, who had remained in the waiting room, was gone when Velma May came out of the doctor’s office and she did not see him again until his appearance in court in response to process in this action. Velma May testified that she had not had intercourse with anyone except respondent, and with him only in the single instance related.

The respondent categorically denied having had intercourse with Velma May at the time alleged, or at any other time. He admitted knowing her and dating her on several occasions and that he called her on the telephone frequently; that he often met her after she came from classes at the business school. He denied, however, that he was with her in Cheesman Park at the time mentioned or that he ever accompanied her to a doctor or discussed marriage with her.

The foregoing does not detail all of the evidence received at the trial, but is sufficient to emphasize the conflict in the evidence which the jury was called upon to resolve.

Respondent complains that Velma May was permitted to testify that she had had no other acts of intercourse, either before or after the single act alleged in the petition. As elicited here this testimony was competent and admissible as tending to exclude the probability of some man other than respondent fathering her [86]*86child. There is in fact no evidence, or even a suggestion, that Velma May associated or kept company with other men. The evidence above detailed, if believed by the jury, was ample to support the verdict.

2. Complaint is made that respondent was not permitted to introduce in evidence a part of the transcript of the first trial relating to the testimony1 of Velma May, the examining physician and others, which it is claimed was at variance with the testimony of' these witnesses given in the present trial. Excerpts from their testimony on the former trial were read to them and they were asked if they remembered giving such testimony, and not in a single instance was it denied. Thus their present testimony and its conflict, if any, with their former testimony was before the jury. Moreover, the court in its instructions advised the jury that the’ portions of the transcript of the former trial, which had been read to them, were true and correct accounts of such testimony. To have permitted parts of the testimony of these witnesses at the former trial to bel'sübmitted to the jury in the form of typed excerpts, as the respondent desired, would have given undue emphasis to such testimony and thus would have been improper. The chief" complaint on this point centers around the testimony of the physician who examined Velma May. He testified that he examined her on May 17, 1954, and diagnosed her condition as two months pregnancy. He examined her again in July and noted a normal advance in her condition. He gave as his opinion that conception had occurred in the latter part of March or the first part of April, but was unable to pinpoint the exact day. This point is labored by respondent seeking to establish a variance in the testimony of the doctor as given at this and. at the former trial. .That the doctor’s diagnosis11 of pregnancy was correct is undisputably confirmed by' the birth of the child on December 27, 1954, and the clear cut issue before the jury was whether the act of intercourse alleged occurred within the permissible period [87]*87and whether the respondent was the man responsible. There was no error in refusing to permit written excerpts of the transcript of the former trial to be submitted to the jury.

3. Complaint is made of the refusal of the court to give respondent’s tendered Instruction No. 2 relating to the testimony of expert witnesses who give opinion evidence upon a hypothetical state of facts. There is nothing in the record to justify the giving of such instruction. The only witness who may be said to have given expert testimony was the physician who examined Velma May.

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Bluebook (online)
336 P.2d 739, 139 Colo. 82, 1959 Colo. LEXIS 406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/angelopoulos-v-wise-colo-1959.