Daniels v. Stock

23 Colo. App. 529
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 15, 1913
DocketNo. 3528
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 23 Colo. App. 529 (Daniels v. Stock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Daniels v. Stock, 23 Colo. App. 529 (Colo. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Morgan, J.

Appellee recovered a judgment, on a verdict, for $2,000. in the Jefferson county district court, May 26, 1909, on account of an alleged wound on the front part of her leg, between the knee and the ankle, which she claimed to have received while bathing in one of appellants’ bath tubs in their public bath house at Idaho -Springs, in this state, and caused, as she alleges, by appellants ’ negligence in permitting a rough-edged piece of copper, covered with dirt and verdigris, to protrude from the lining of the tub in such way as to inflict the wound, which she alleges resulted in blood poisoning and the consequent injury complained of.

An examination of this appeal presents three predesignate issues of fact necessary to a logical discussion and determination of the legal issues involved: (1) Was the appellee injured as she alleged; (2) Was appellants’ negligence the cause thereof? (3) Was the alleged damage the result? These three issues were determined by the jury in favor of the appellee, but such determination was, doubtless, the result of errors of law that occurred at the trial, manifestly and materially affecting appellants’ substantial rights, as that term is construed by [532]*532the courts of other states as well as our own. Our code provides that:

“The court shall in every stage of an action disregard any error or defect in the pleadings or proceedings which shall not affect the substantial rights of the parties, and no judgment shall be reversed or affected by reason of such error or defect; * * * Any error, defect or abuse of discretion manifestly and materially affecting the substantial rights of any party to the action may be received and corrected by the supreme court on appeal or writ of error, whether occurring before, at or after the final judgment.” — Sec. 78, Mills’ Ann. Code.

It is not so difficult to ascertain that there was error in the proceedings, as to determine whether such error manifestly and materially affected the substantial rights of the appellants.

The case was tried three times, resulting in two verdicts for appellee, and one disagreement. On the last trial, certain testimony was read to the jury that had been given by a witness at a former trial and transcribed by the stenographer who took it down; and the testimony of two witnesses was rejected, tending to prove that the testimony so admitted and read was obtained by offering to give the witness an interest in whatever judgment was obtained. The testimony so admitted, and that which was rejected, bore materially upon the first two, and indirectly upon the third, of the aforesaid issues of fact. The rule is quite generally established, even in the absence of a statute, that the testimony of a witness at a former trial, transcribed by the court stenographer and reporter who took it down, may be proved in a subsequent trial between the same parties and involving the same issues, by introducing such report thereof; provided that the witness is dead, insane, beyond the jurisdiction of the court, or is sick and unable to testify, or cannot be found after diligent search, or appears to have [533]*533been kept away by the adverse party. — 1 Greenleaf on Ev., 234. But, as stated in Emerson v. Burnett, 11 Colo. App., 86, 90:

“The courts all agree that conditions may exist which would authorize the introduction of the former testimony of an absent witness, but they disagree as to the character of the conditions; and while some hold that the fact that he is out of the jurisdiction is enough, it is the doctrine of others that the party desiring his testimony must first use due diligence to procure his deposition. ’ ’

The question here is concerning the diligence used, to procure the attendance of the witness, as it was admitted that the evidence, transcribed, was correct in all respects, and no question arose as to taking her deposition. Such testimony is the best proof obtainable as to what a witness swore to on a former trial, but not so good in all respects as a deposition, as the witness whose deposition is taken, either reads, or has the deposition read over to him, before he signs the same, and an opportunity is then given to correct any errors in taking it down or transcribing it. The sufficiency of the showing to excuse the absence of the witness and to admit the offered testimony is largely within the discretion of the court, and it is only upon an abuse of such discretion that the appellate courts will interfere. The diligence shown by the record here is that the witness, after she gave her testimony on the former trial, went to an adjoining county, and from there to another county, in this state; that appellee wrote to her, prior to a former trial, and received a letter from her while she was in the latter place, and answered it, but received no reply; that appellee asked her attorney to cause a search to be made for the witness, but the attorney m.erely had a subpoena issued, in the name the witness bore when she testified, and delivered it to the sheriff of Jefferson county, and no re[534]*534turn was made thereupon; that appellee had never heard of the witness’ being in any other place in the state, and that she inquired of the postmaster at the place where she wrote as above stated; it appeared also that the witness had married since her testimony was given, and was thereafter known by a different name. The court, .in ruling upon the objection interposed to the insufficiency of this showing, said:

“The Court: It appears that this witness has testified that after making some search she was unable to find this party in this county, that she in all probability is not in the county. I will overrule the objection.”

This ruling discloses a mistaken idea of what is required. The county is not the limit of the jurisdiction of the district court. A subpoena issued in the name the witness bore at the time, and directed to the sheriff of the county in which she lived when last heard from might have reached the witness, so far as anything definite can be determined from the record. The admission of this testimony materially affected the substantial rights of the appellants, and the showing made to excuse her absence was insufficient.—5 Enc. of Ev., 396, 964; 1 Greenleaf on Ev., 234; Sou. Ry. Co. v. Bonner, 141 Ala., 517, 37 Sou. 702; Wabash Ry. Co. v. Miller, 158 Ind., 174, 61 N. E., 1005; Reynolds v. Fitzpatrick, 28 Mont., 179, 72 Pac., 510. We might not disturb the conclusion of the lower court, reached, within its discretion, that the showing was sufficient, were it not for the peculiar circumstances of this ease in reference to the impeaching testimony rejected, and the consequent importance of the presence of the absent witness, in order that she might be cross-examined and a foundation laid for the introduction of the impeaching testimony.

The testimony of the two witnesses, that was offered and rejected, tended to prove that the witness, whose former testimony was admitted, stated, prior to the date [535]*535of her testimony at the former trial, that the appellee promised to give her $300 for testifying, if she won the suit. The testimony of the absent witness was that she saw the appellee in the bath tub after the wound had been inflicted, examined the protruding piece of copper on the bath tub, and, later, saw the swollen and inflamed condition of the appellee’s leg.

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Bluebook (online)
23 Colo. App. 529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/daniels-v-stock-coloctapp-1913.