Carroll v. Krause

15 N.E.2d 323, 295 Ill. App. 552, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 483
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 10, 1938
DocketGen. No. 9,262
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 15 N.E.2d 323 (Carroll v. Krause) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carroll v. Krause, 15 N.E.2d 323, 295 Ill. App. 552, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 483 (Ill. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Wolfe

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action to recover damages for the death of Gregory Carroll resulting from a collision of an automobile (in which he was riding as a guest) and the defendant’s truck on State Highway No. 4, a short distance south of Joliet, between the hours of 12:00 and 1:00 o ’clock a. m., on August 1,1929. In a former trial there was a verdict and judgment. for the plaintiff, which judgment was reversed and a new trial ordered by this court for errors in the evidence. (Carroll v. Krause, 280 Ill. App. 52.) A second trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed to this court. Both trials were in the circuit court of Peoria county.

In our former opinion we held that the transcript of testimony, taken before the coroner at the inquest, was inadmissible as evidence for the purpose of impeachment, because the certificate to the transcript did not show that the testimony was reduced to writing as required by the terms of section 18 of ch. 31, Cahill’s Ill. St. 1933, ¶ 19. Before the second trial, the plaintiff, by oral examination, took the depositions of Dr. A. A. Kingston, the coroner, and Mrs. Grace Thomas, the stenographer, to prove that the testimony given at the inquest was taken in shorthand and transcribed by a competent person. The attorney for the defendant was present when the depositions were taken and took part in the examination of the deponents.

At the trial the depositions were opened in the presence of counsel. A hearing was had before the judge (in the absence of the jury) on the question of the admissibility of the testimony in the depositions as competent evidence for the jury. At this hearing the defendant’s counsel made various objections to the competency of the depositions which were allowed to stand as objections to the admission of the depositions when offered in evidence on rebuttal by the plaintiff, as impeachment of Ralph Wehnes, a witness who had testified at the former trial for the defendant.

Dr. Kingston stated in substance, that he presided at the inquest on the body of Gregory Carroll; that a stenographer, Mrs. Grace Thomas, wrote down the testimony of each witness at the inquest; that he thereafter certified to the correctness of the transcript of the testimony in a form not in conformity with the statute; that he had with him an amended coroner’s certificate and an amended certificate of the stenographer, both of which he intended to attach to the original transcript of the testimony.

Mrs. Thomas (whose qualifications as a competent person to take the testimony of the witnesses at the inquest in shorthand and transcribe them as required by statute, is not questioned) stated that she took the testimony of the witnesses and transcribed the same, and that she had with her an amended certificate made by her which was to be attached to the original transcript.

The testimony given before the coroner was admitted on the taking of the deposition of Dr. Kingston as Exhibit 1, and it forms a part of his deposition. When the deposition of Mrs. Thomas was taken, the plaintiff’s attorney had before him the transcript of the testimony taken at the inquest. The testimony of Wehnes at the inquest was embodied in the Thomas deposition by the attorney’s direct interrogatories, seriatim, whether Wehnes, at the inquest, had been asked and answered the questions as they appeared in the trqngcript. To each question Mrs, Thomas answered, “Yes, he did.” Attorneys for the defendant, when the depositions were taken, made objections to the introduction of the transcript and cross-examined the deponents. Mrs. Thomas stated that she was at the inquest and acted as stenographer on behalf of the coroner; that she took the testimony which was given at the inquest in shorthand and later transcribed it; that the transcript contained the true and correct statement of each of the several witnesses who testified at the inquest and whose evidence is found in the transcript. On cross-examination she testified, in substance : “When I answered those various questions as what was asked and what was answered at the inquest, I was simply checking what is typed on plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 1, and answered in the affirmative to those questions as I looked at plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 1, because that is the true and original copy of everything that transpired at the inquest and I know it was the original answers and questions.”

At the hearing before the trial judge, the amended certificates to the transcript and both depositions were admitted before the court, as containing competent evidence to be used at the trial before the jury for impeachment purposes. The plaintiff offered to introduce the entire depositions of Dr. Kingston and Mrs. Thomas before the jury, to which the defendant objected. The plaintiff then offered certain parts of Mrs. Thomas’ deposition before the jury as impeachment of defendant’s witness Wehnes. The court held that the offer was proper. The deposition of Dr. Kingston was not offered in evidence before the jury. Exhibit No. 1 was not offered as evidence on the trial. It is clear from a reading of the discussion and rulings heard and made before the court, that the judge understood that the deponent Thomas in her deposition, testified that Wehnes had made the answers as they appear in Exhibit No. 1 and in her deposition.

At the hearing before the trial judge, the plaintiff’s attorney read extracts from the deposition of Mrs. Thomas, which he intended to offer as evidence on the trial.

After considerable discussion as to what part of the depositions should be offered, the trial was resumed. Mr. Eyan read questions and answers to the jury from the deposition, in the same form as they were read before the judge at the hearing. It is contended that the impeaching evidence so brought before the jury consists of self-serving questions and answers of the attorney who examined Mrs. Thomas when her deposition was taken, and there was no proof before the jury that Wehnes had testified at the inquest as shown by the questions and answers read from the deposition. It is also contended that if that part of the deposition which states that Wehnes had been asked and had answered the questions at the inquest, that had been read to the jury, the defendant would have offered in evidence the cross-examination of Mrs. Thomas, as it appears in the deposition, for the purpose of discrediting or weakening her affirmative statement that the questions and answers were part of Wehnes’ testimony before the coroner.

The transcript of the testimony taken at the inquest was the best evidence of Wehnes’ testimony at the inquest. (Overtoom v. Chicago & E. I. R. Co., 181 Ill. 323, cited in Carroll v. Krause, supra. See also Briggs v. People, 219 Ill. 330; Goldstein v. Chicago City Ry. Co., 210 Ill. App. 48.) No objection was made that Mrs. Thomas had no independent recollection of Wehnes’ testimony before the coroner. It is not shown that the amended certificates to the transcript are irregular or not in conformity to the statute, nor that the amendments were improperly made. There was no objection that the part of the deposition of Mrs. Thomas offeréd and received in evidence, was not the best evidence. The defendant had the right to offer the whole or any part of the deposition of Mrs. Thomas in evidence as he saw fit.

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Bluebook (online)
15 N.E.2d 323, 295 Ill. App. 552, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carroll-v-krause-illappct-1938.