Kohlhagen v. Cardwell

184 P. 261, 93 Or. 610, 8 A.L.R. 11, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 191
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 7, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 184 P. 261 (Kohlhagen v. Cardwell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kohlhagen v. Cardwell, 184 P. 261, 93 Or. 610, 8 A.L.R. 11, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 191 (Or. 1919).

Opinion

BENNETT, J.

1. We think there was no error in permitting the witness, Alice Mann, to testify as to whether or not the hogs could have been in the shop without her seeing them. This, of course, was in some sense a conclusion; hut whether they could have been there and escaped her observation depended on a great number of small details — the general course of business — the place where hogs were hung — the arrangement of the building and position of windows and doors therein — her own position in the building — her own habits of observation and alertness of mind and the extent to which she kept the business under her personal observation. These were all matters that could hardly have been accurately and fully reproduced to the jury. Under such circumstances the witness is permitted to state her conclusion, which is treated as a conclusion of fact under the authorities.

In Lawson on Expert and Opinion Evidence, page 509, the author quotes with approval from the opinion in the case of Cavendish v. Troy, 41 Vt. 107, as follows:

“Where the witness has had the means of personal observation and the facts and circumstances, which lead the mind of the witness to .a conclusion, are incapable of being detailed and described so as to enable anyone but the observer himself to form an intelligent conclusion from them, the witness is often allowed to add his opinion or the conclusion of his own mind.”

In the Vermont case quoted from, the witness was being interrogated as to the residence of another party in a certain town, and was asked:

“Q. From your opportunities of knowing, as you have stated them, do you think it possible for T. to have lived in J. that year and you not have known it?”

[614]*614And the question was held proper.

In Rodgers on Expert and Opinion Evidence, page 9, Section 4, it is said:

“Witnesses are allowed to express opinions based on facts within their personal observation when the facts cannot be so described as to enable another to draw any intelligent conclusions therefrom.”

It is also claimed that there was error, in permitting the evidence of certain witnesses for the plaintiff, in regard to experiments made by them in loading hogs in a wagon. The defendant had testified that the hogs delivered by him were carried in two wagons, twelve in a small or ordinary wagon which, however, had a bed 16 inches longer than an ordinary wagon, and twenty-four of them in a large wagon with a rack. This rack, according to the testimony of the defendant, was 14 feet long and about the width of an ordinary wagon, and that the rack on this wagon was 3 ft. 6 in. high. There is a discrepancy between the’testimony of this witness, as to the height of the wagon, and that of Dug Good, from whom the wagon was obtained, who testified that it was only 32 instead of 42 inches high. The testimony of the defendant is to the effect that the hogs were put in the wagon in layers, three in each layer lengthwise across the bed of the wagon, and then others were piled in upon these in the most convenient way. According to the testimony of the defendant the hogs taken in by him would average about 216 pounds in weight. The experiments made by the defendant were with an ordinary wagon, and the hogs weighed 219 pounds each, and the experiment was made with eight hogs.

2. In the matter of the experiment, there was no attempt to fill the wagon, which was only 29% inches high, and the only effect of the testimony was to show [615]*615about what space such hogs would occupy in a wagon. The testimony was to the effect that three such hogs could be laid lengthwise in a tier across the wagon. This was in accordance with the testimony of the defendant, who testified that the hogs transported were laid in the wagon in that way. The testimony was, that two tiers of the hogs were 10y2 feet long, and that each hog was 16 inches one way and 12 the other, and the 3 hogs in each row filled the bed up the full width, and when one hog was laid sideways across these it filled the bed up to within 6 inches of the top. This testimony does not seem to have had much weight and it probably did not influence the jury at all. Indeed, in some respects, as we have seen, it corroborated the testimony of defendant. If the large rack was 42 inches high, as testified by defendant, the testimony rather tended to show that 24 hogs could have been loaded in such a rack 14 feet long.

It is practically conceded in the brief of the learned attorney for the defendant, that the evidence had no logical effect in the case; but it is urged, that—

“The jury would naturally conclude that this evidence must be beneficial to the respondent or he would not have called the witnesses, and being unable to figure out for themselves what benefit it was, took it for granted that it was beneficial, and that these men would not have come in and testified unless their evidence was beneficial to the respondent.”

We cannot assume that the jury were so lacking in intelligence as to be carried away and influenced by such artificial and illogical considerations. On the contrary, we must presume that they were men of ordinary and usual intelligence and that they would decide the case according to the evidence, without refer[616]*616ence to tlie mere number of witnesses called by the respective parties.

The questions involved in this case were peculiarly for the jury, involving as they did so much of conflict in the direct testimony of the witnesses, and so many conflicting circumstances corroborating each side. The jury heard and saw the witnesses and could compare their testimony and judge of their credibility. The case seems to have been fairly tried, as the record is unusually free even from claim of error. Even if we thought that the testimony, as to the loading of these hogs, was on the whole inadmissible, it would seem a trifling thing upon which to reverse a case which had otherwise been fairly tried. It is so unlikely and improbable that the evidence substantially affected the verdict and it is so minor and unimportant in its character, we should hesitate to reverse the case upon that ground.

Besides we think the evidence, so far as it went and so far as it had any effect at all, was admissible. It' only went to the extent of showing what space in an ordinary wagon-box eight hogs would fill. The hogs were practically the same size as the average of the hogs hauled by the-defendant. The average of one lot was 215 pounds and a fraction over, and the other 219 pounds and a little over, or about four pounds difference. This was about as close as was possible and the wagon-boxes were practically the same in width. The length of the wagon-box or its height did not cut any figure so far as the experiment went, for it was not claimed that the hogs loaded on experiment filled the whole space of the wagon-bed either as to length or height, so the only effect of the experiment was to show the space occupied by each hog, the number that could be put in a tier across the bed and the [617]*617length of two tiers of such hogs in the bed. For these measurements the conditions of the experiment were almost exactly similar with the conditions as to the hogs loaded by defendant. As we have already said, the evidence certainly did not go very far and probably did not at all contradict the evidence of the defendant.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Loveless v. Maass
999 P.2d 537 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2000)
Stoll v. Curl
551 P.2d 1058 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1976)
State v. Cypher
438 P.2d 904 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1968)
Joanne Theresa Altvater v. Edward L. Battocletti
300 F.2d 156 (Fourth Circuit, 1962)
State v. Sack
300 P.2d 427 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1957)
Redmond v. Ouachita Coca-Cola Bottling Company
76 So. 2d 553 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1954)
Sanders v. Glenshaw Glass Co.
108 F. Supp. 528 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1952)
State v. DeZeler
41 N.W.2d 313 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1950)
State v. Henderson
184 P.2d 392 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1947)
Crecelius ex rel. Crecelius v. Gamble-Skogmo, Inc.
13 N.W.2d 627 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1944)
State v. Copenbarger
16 P.2d 383 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1932)
Adskim v. Oregon-Washington R. & Nav. Co.
294 P. 605 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1930)
Deal v. United States
11 F.2d 3 (Ninth Circuit, 1926)
State v. Stewart
231 P. 692 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1924)
State v. Riley
218 P. 238 (Washington Supreme Court, 1923)
State v. Casey
213 P. 771 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1923)
Hall v. Brown
202 P. 719 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1921)
Horn v. Elgin Warehouse Co.
190 P. 151 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1920)
State v. Holbrook
188 P. 947 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1920)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 P. 261, 93 Or. 610, 8 A.L.R. 11, 1919 Ore. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kohlhagen-v-cardwell-or-1919.