Grantham v. Herod

320 S.W.2d 536, 1959 Mo. LEXIS 925
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 12, 1959
DocketNo. 46384
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 320 S.W.2d 536 (Grantham v. Herod) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grantham v. Herod, 320 S.W.2d 536, 1959 Mo. LEXIS 925 (Mo. 1959).

Opinion

COIL, Commissioner.

About 7: IS on the dark rainy morning •of January 3, 1955, Chester Grantham, plaintiff below, appellant here, while making a left turn in his automobile, was struck hy a car driven by Fred Herod, defendant "below. Plaintiff claimed damages for personal injuries and a jury returned a defendant’s verdict. Plaintiff appealed from the ensuing judgment and contends here that the trial court erred in the admission of evidence and' in the giving of instructions.

Plaintiff’s points on this appeal are such that a brief statement of facts will suffice. Buckner-Lake City Road is in Jackson County and is, for our purposes, an east-west black top about 20 feet wide. Elm Tree Road runs south from the Buckner-Lake City Road. Plaintiff, driving west on the Buckner-Lake City Road, was turning south (left) into Elm Tree Road. Defendant, who had been following and who was preparing to pass, struck the rear bumper of plaintiff’s automobile as it was executing the left turn. There was evidence from which a jury reasonably could have found that plaintiff made the left turn without giving any signal of his intention, as required by law, and that defendant was passing at an intersection and that he did not signal his intention to pass, against the admonition of the law.

During plaintiff’s cross-examination, defendant’s counsel apparently developed on a blackboard a free-hand sketch of the intersection and the positions of relevant objects, in accordance with plaintiff’s testimony. That is to say, defendant’s counsel asked plaintiff, for example, the width of the road, and would then show it on the blackboard, and asked the distance plaintiff’s car was from a certain place at a certain time and then would indicate that distance. Plaintiff’s counsel, after several questions by defendant’s counsel and answers by plaintiff, said, “I object to the use of the blackboard on the ground that he is apparently leading to situations where he is going to make a diagram which will not be part of the record.” The court overruled that objection. Plaintiff now contends that the trial court erred in permitting defendant to develop and use the blackboard sketch because it was not an exhibit and the matters contained thereon were not fully described in the record.

Plaintiff cites no Missouri case to support his position. He relies upon Igo v. Smith, 282 Ky. 336, 138 S.W.2d 497. That case holds that under a rule promulgated by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, providing that maps or diagrams used at a trial must be made part of the record and brought to [538]*538the appellate court or an appropriate penalty for failure to so do may be imposed, a map or a plat drawn on the courtroom floor during the trial should have been copied and the copy made part of the record. The Kentucky court, however, inflicted no penalty on either party for having failed to include a copy of the plat in the record. There are many other cases dealing with the various aspects of the problem- of the use of maps, plats, diagrams, and other drawings to illustrate testimony. For example, see the annotation in 9 A.L.R.2d 1044, 1066-1080; Birks v. East Side Transfer Co., Or., 241 P.2d 120, 135; Cincinnati Street Ry. Co. v. Waterman, 50 Ohio App. 380, 198 N.E. 494, 495, 496; Carter v. Commonwealth, 260 Ky. 538, 86 S.W.2d 290, 292 [2].

It appears unnecessary and surely unwise in the instant case to attempt any review of the subject or to define the circumstances under which a trial court may be convicted of error for failing to require or permit a sketch or drawing to become part of an appellate record. Certainly there are many apparent reasons why instant plaintiff’s contention lacks merit. For present purposes, however, suffice to say that we have encountered no difficulty in understanding the testimony elicited in connection with the blackboard diagram and that plaintiff makes no contention on this appeal which depends upon anything in or which has to do with the absent sketch. Consequently, it is apparent that plaintiff was not prejudiced by defendant’s use of the blackboard. See Petershagen v. Star Clothing Co., 188 Mo.App. 581, 176 S.W. 466, 467 [3].

As a part of his case in chief, plaintiff testified that his automobile was repaired at Latimer Motors and identified what had been marked as plaintiff’s Exhibit 30 as the estimate of the cost of repairs and the bill therefor in the sum of $227.10. That exhibit was offered by plaintiff and admitted in evidence. During plaintiff’s cross-examination, he was asked who paid the $227.10. An objection on the ground that the question was an improper attempt to mitigate damages because defendant owed the money even though it might have been paid by someone other than plaintiff was overruled. On the exhibit appeared this: “Mail Copy To — Elliot Ins. Agency Buckner Mo.” Defendant’s counsel asked plaintiff to read the foregoing to the jury. After plaintiff had complied, the question was, “Who is Elliot Insurance Agency ?” Whereupon, plaintiff’s counsel said, “I renew my objection,” which the court overruled. Plaintiff answered that it was the insurance agent at Buckner. And then, “Q. How does he become interested in this ? How did he happen to get a copy on it ? A. I had my insurance on my automobile with this company.”

Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in admitting that evidence because it improperly showed that plaintiff was insured and permitted the jury to speculate that plaintiff may have been fully reimbursed for all of his loss, including his personal injuries.

Plaintiff placed the exhibit in evidence without limitation of any kind. He was, of course, subject to legitimate cross-examination concerning the complete exhibit. Cf. Young v. Sinclair Refining Co., Mo.App. 92 S.W.2d 995, 1002 [10] [11, 12], The fact, standing alone, however, that the notation to mail the repair bill to a named insurance agency was on the exhibit would not justify the disclosure, over proper objection, of the further information that plaintiff had his automobile insurance with that agent if such was wholly irrelevant and immaterial under any view of the issues. We may not say that the information disclosed by the cross-examination did not have some relevancy to the issues. That is because the unexplained notation on the repair bill to mail it to a certain insurance agency at a certain location was subject to the possible inference that the insurance agency noted was defendant’s agent and that defendant, or someone on his behalf, had instructed that the bill be mailed as directed. [539]*539In view of the fact that plaintiff introduc-id the exhibit in evidence without limitation, we hold that the trial court did not ■err in permitting the cross-examination.

The deputy sheriff who investigated the accident was plaintiff’s witness and, on 3ns cross-examination, the record shows:

“Q. I notice that in investigating this you made no arrests. A. No arrests.
“Q. No charges of any kind?
“Mr. Lewis: I object to that as immaterial to any issues of this case. The ■Court: Overruled.
“A. At that time, no.
“Q. Not at that time. Were any made later? A. No.
“Q. Then, as far as you know, there were no charges ? A. No, not that I know ■of.”

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Bluebook (online)
320 S.W.2d 536, 1959 Mo. LEXIS 925, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grantham-v-herod-mo-1959.