Gutowsky v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co.

1955 OK 219, 287 P.2d 204, 4 Oil & Gas Rep. 1532, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 472
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 19, 1955
Docket36519
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1955 OK 219 (Gutowsky v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gutowsky v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co., 1955 OK 219, 287 P.2d 204, 4 Oil & Gas Rep. 1532, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 472 (Okla. 1955).

Opinion

DAVISON, Justice.

This is an action on open account brought by the plaintiff) Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company, against the defendants, Marie Gutowsky and Chester E. Gutowsky) Executors of the Estate, of Assaph (Ace) Gutowsky, deceased) The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

• No question is raised as to the correctness of the account nor the performance of the labor and furnishing of the' materials for which the charges were made. The sole defense was that the account was not that of the individual, Ace Gutowsky, now deceased, but .rather, was the account of the Corporation, A. Gutowsky, Inc., of which Mr. Gutowsky was president and general manager. The charges made on the account were for supplies and cementing services furnished by plaintiff in the drilling of an oil well approximately 700 miles from Mc-Allen, Texas, near a small town by the name of Matador, The well was owned by, and was being drilled by or for the corporation. Plaintiff’s itemized statement of account as attached to its petition discloses some fifteen individual items charged thereon between October 12 and November 11, 1950. The supplies and services were furnished upon order of the person or persons in charge of drilling the well. The said Ace Gutowsky died in April 1951 and this action was filed against the executors of his estate, the defendants herein, on May 28, 1952. A trial to a jury resulted in verdict and judgment for plaintiff for the amount sued for, from which the defendants have perfected this appeal.

The first proposition presented is that the trial court erred in. refusing to hear evidence or to consider affidavits of certain jurors that the jury, in considering its verdict, had n'ot made .a fair deliberation of the issues presented. Defendants admit in their brief that this court has held adversely to their contention. In the case, of Wilson v. Oklahoma Railway Co., 207 Okl. 204; 248 P.2d 1014, 1020 the rule was stated as follows, together with citation of a number of earlier cases supporting it:

“Abiding on the principle of sound public policy, it has become the settled rule in this jurisdiction that a juror will not be permitted by affidavit or- testimony to impeach the verdict for misconduct occurring either inside or outside the jury room.” .

We see no reason for disturbing the application of that rule.

The next proposition goes to the admissibility of testimony as to á telephone conversation which was admitted in evidence over objection and exception. The district superintendent for plaintiff .testified that on October 22, 1950, he received a long distance telephone call which the telephone operator told him was from Ace Gutowsky at McAllen, Texas; that he did not know Mr. Gutowsky nor did he know the sound of his voice; that the person calling said he was Ace Gutowsky and that he would be personally responsible for material and services furnished by plaintiff in connection with the drilling of the well. This testimony was objected tb> by defendants • on the grounds that there was nothing to show- the identity of the person to whom witness talked as being Ace Gutowsky. The objection was overruled and it is here argued that its admission was error. Several cases are cited in support of that position, typical of which is that of Williamson-Halsell-Frasier Co. v. King, 58 Okl. 120, 158 P. 1142, 1143, wherein it was said:

“ ‘Telephone conversations, in so far as concerns their admissibility in eyi-dence, are in the main governed, by the same rule of evidence which governs the admissions in evidence of oral statements made in an ordinary conversation, except, of course, the necessity of identification of the party against whom the conversation is sought to, be used. * * * Before such conversation may be received in evidence, however, the identity of the party sought to be charged therewith must be established.’
*206 “In the application of the rule quoted it is held that the identity of the person should be established by some testimony, though the evidence may be either direct or circumstantial, as, for example, that witness was acquainted with the person talking and recognized his voice. But such identity must be in some way established.”

The question then arises as to how much and what kind of proof of identity is necessary ? That question has not been squarely before us, heretofore. However, under similar circumstances, the Missouri Court, in the Case of Kansas City Star Publishing Co. v. Standard Warehouse Co., 123 Mo. App. 13, 99 S.W. 765, 766, made the following statement:

“One of plaintiff’s staff, who had in charge the advertising, was called up over the telephone by some one asking about the advertisement and speaking of. it as one ‘we are putting in.’ This person gave, his name as Carlisle, and on being asked what connection he had with it, replied that he was president of the company which, was having the advertisement inserted in the paper. Notwithstanding Carlisle was unknown to the party, and, in consequence, there being no way for such party to identify him by voice, yet the evidence was ad..missible, to be given such weight as, under the circumstances, the jury thought was proper.”

To the same effect was the case of General Securities Co. v. Sunday School Pub. Board, Inc., 22 Tenn.App. 590, 125 S.W.2d 160.

lit the quoted case, the witness was permitted to testify relative to the telephone conversation because of the identifying conversation with the other party which was of about the same type and weight as that in the instant case. Herein, the speaker identified himself as Ace Gutowsky and also spoke intimately concerning the condition of the well being drilled, and for which the plaintiff was requested to furnish services and material. That sufficiently identified the speaker to make competent the testimony as to the further telephone conversation. The jury was properly allowed to consider it and to give it such weight as they, the jurors, might find it was entitled.

In opposition, the defendants produced a witness who testified that at the time of the alleged telephone conversation, Mr. Gutowsky was with him at the well some 700 miles away from McAllen, Texas, the origin point of the phone call; that, by reason thereof, it was impossible that the conversation occurred as testified to by plaintiff’s witness. Such a controverted question of fact, however, was one for the jury to consider and determine. This it did and the verdict was for plaintiff.

At the trial, defendants requested certain instructions which the court refused to give. Error is assigned because thereof. The record disclosed that the trial court did give other instructions, covering the same issues and contentions, which adequately covered the law governing the same. As was said in the case of Cooke v. Townley, Okl., 265 P.2d 1108, 1113:

“The instructions, when considered as a whole, fairly presented the issues to the jury and it was not error to refuse defendant’s requested instructions.”

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Bluebook (online)
1955 OK 219, 287 P.2d 204, 4 Oil & Gas Rep. 1532, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gutowsky-v-halliburton-oil-well-cementing-co-okla-1955.