Long v. Galveston Electric Co.

59 S.W.2d 228
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 8, 1933
DocketNo. 9808
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 59 S.W.2d 228 (Long v. Galveston Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Long v. Galveston Electric Co., 59 S.W.2d 228 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinions

GRAVES, Justice.

The suit is for damages against the electric company alleged to have resulted to the five year old child, Jacob Long, Jr., from the collision between it and one of the company’s street cars at the intersection of Avenue L and Eleventh street in the city of Galveston, upon averments that the child’s injuries had been the proximate result of negligence upon the part of the operatives of the car in a number of detailed particulars; the issues of negligence raised by the pleadings and proof were submitted to a jury in special inquiries, all of which in final effect were answered favorably to the electric company, whereupon judgment upon the verdict entered for it.

On the appeal by the child through its next [229]*229friend, it is contended that the verdict lacked support in the evidence, being contrary to the overwhelming preponderance thereof, that the court erred in admitting the testimony of Mrs. Martini as to alleged statements made to her by the child’s mother after the accident, also in admitting the testimony of the witness McLin as to certain tests made by him a considerable time before this accident as to how far a street car moved after its brakes were applied, and in permitting counsel for the street car company, while arguing the cause to the jury, to state to them, among other things: “Street cars do ring their bells; they are instructed to do that. It may be obnoxious to the people whose homes they,are passing, but it is the only safe thing for them to do. They do it when they pass my house.”

These presentments will be disposed of in the order given.

The first one, concerning the claim for an overwhelming preponderance of the evidence against the verdict, need not be decided, in view of the conclusion that the court did err to the prejudice of appellant in admitting the testimony complained of under the next two, since the evidence may not be the same upon another trial.

As concerns the latter two, we think the court should have, in the circumstances, excluded both the challenged testimony of Mrs. Martini and Mr. McLin.

The injured child’s mother, a negro woman named Parilee Long, was not a party to the suit, which was brought and prosecuted by its father as next friend, and while a witness on the stand was neither asked, if she ever talked to Mrs. Martini at all nor with reference to any conversation had with her concerning this child or this case; no predicate of any sort, therefore, had been laid for impeaching her as a witness by reason of anything which may have occurred ex curia between her and Mrs. Martini. Neff v. Cameron, 213 Mo. 350, 111 S. W. 1139, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 320, 127 Am. St. Rep. 606; Ayres v. Duprey, 27 Tex. 594, 86 Am. Dec. 657; The Charles Morgan v. Kouns, 115 U. S. 69, 5 S. Ct. 1172, 29 L. Ed. 316; 28 R. C. L. 636,

After the child’s mother and other witnesses in its favor had given testimony tending to establish the fact of the collision, its having been caused by the negligence of the appel-lee’s operatives, and of its having proximately caused an epileptic condition then affecting the child, Mrs. Martini as a witness for the appellee, after first giving testimony tending-in purport to indicate that the suit itself was the result of malingering, was then, over strenuous objection on the part'of appellant’s counsel that it was hearsay, not binding upon the child, not based on any predicate for impeachment of its mother, irrelevant and immaterial, was permitted to further testify that the mother had told her the child was in the hospital from some disease, the “shots” they gave it having caused its affliction, and that the very day of the accident she had further told her the child wasn’t hurt, and then the witness added these further statements as to what had passed between her and the child’s mother: “She wanted me to testify that the child’s condition was caused by the accident, and I said I couldn’t do it because I had children of my own, and I would tell the truth; she wanted me to come to court and testify that the child was normal before the lick, but I told her I couldn’t do it because he wasn’t hit bad. He fell in front but he wasn’t badly hit; the next day she came in the store with the child, and he walked in and out, and the doctor came and he said there was nothing the matter with the child, so she told me.”

It clearly appears from the colloquy between counsel when the stated objections were made to the admission of all this testimony, not only that it was not admissible for that purpose because, as indicated, no predicate had been laid for it, but also that it was not offered for the purpose of impeaching the child’s mother, but solely on the theory that the child as a litigant was bound by these statements to Mrs. Martini as admissions on the part of its mother:

“Q. What did she want you to testify to?
“Mr. Harris: That is hearsay.
“Mr. Wigley: It is by the most interested party in this case.
“Mr. Harris: She is not a party to the suit.
“Mr. Wigley: It is the mother of this child, who is clearly responsible for what may have been done or said to make out this ease.”

These quoted express declarations of the purpose for which the statements were offered negative any other and rebut any suggestion that such declarations were, or could have been, receivable as indicating the interest of the mother in the case.

In the first place, they were not receivable as admissions of the mother against the interest of the child. Galveston H. & H. Ry. Co. v. Moore, 59 Tex. 64, 46 Am. Rep. 265; Gersdorff v. Torres (Tex. Com. App.) 293 S. W. 560; Houston & T. C. Ry. Co. v. Bradley, 45 Tex. 171; Kingsbury v. Buckner, 134 U. S. 650, 10 S. Ct. 638, 33 L. Ed. 1047; Neff v. Cameron, 213 Mo. 350, 111 S. W. 1139, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 320, 127 Am. St. Rep. 606; Phillips v. Herndon, 78 Tex. 378, 14 S. W. 857, 22 Am. St. Rep. 59; White v. Joyce, 158 U. S. 128, 15 S. Ct. 788, 39 L. Ed. 921; 14 R. C. L. 291; 28 R. C. L. 636; 22 C. J. 363, 407; 31 C. J. 1143; 32 C. J. 777.

In the next place, the appellee having thus offered the testimony as admissions of the mother binding on the child, and objection having been made to it on that ground, it was error to admit it at all, under the rule as stated by Wigmore on Evidence, § 18, as follows: “If several facts are included in the [230]*230offer, some admissible and others inadmissible, then the whole (if properly objected to) is inadmissible; in other words, it is for the proponent to sever the good and the bad parts. Similarly, an offer of a fact for two purposes is erroneous if the fact is inadmissible for one of the purposes, though it would have been admissible for the other if offered for that alone. An offer of a fact for an inadmissible purpose A is properly excluded, though the same fact would have been admissible for purpose B. Conversely, an offer of a fact for purpose B is properly admitted, even though the same fact would have been inadmissible if offered for purpose A; this follows from the .doctrine of multiple admissibility.”

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Bluebook (online)
59 S.W.2d 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-galveston-electric-co-texapp-1933.