Southern Hardware & Sup. Co. v. Standard Equip. Co.

51 So. 789, 165 Ala. 582, 1910 Ala. LEXIS 115
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 10, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 51 So. 789 (Southern Hardware & Sup. Co. v. Standard Equip. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Hardware & Sup. Co. v. Standard Equip. Co., 51 So. 789, 165 Ala. 582, 1910 Ala. LEXIS 115 (Ala. 1910).

Opinion

MAYFIELD, J.

— This was an action by the appelleeagainst, the appellant for negligence in leaving a team-of horses unattended in the streets of the city of Mobile,, in violation of an ordinance of that city; alleging that in consequence of such negligence the team ran away and injured a mule, the property of plaintiff. The case-has been before this court, on appeal, once before. See report of case, 158 Ala. 596, 48 South. 357.

The bill of exceptions does not purport to set out all, or substantially all of the evidence; consequently there-are assigned, and insisted upon, some errors which we-cannot review on this appeal. This, for the all-sufficient reason, as has been often declared by this court, that we-cannot know, in this state of the record, whether the-[585]*585rulings of the court complained of were proper or not,' such as the giving or the refusing of the general affirm-' ative charge. — Evansville Co. v. Slater, 101 Ala. 245, 15 South. 241; Wadsworth v. Williams, 101 Ala. 264, 13 South. 755; 5 Mayfield’s Dig. p. 100, § 13.

It is insisted by appellee that, in view of this condition of the record, we cannot review any of the errors assigned, in that they all go to the rulings of the court upon the evidence, or to the giving or refusing of instructions to the jury. We cannot assent to this proposition in toto. There are some assignments which we must review,- notwithstanding this condition of the record. This court, in the case of Bolton v. Cuthbert, 132 Ala. 406, 31 South. 359 (90 Am. St. Rep. 914), used this language: “While this court has gone very far in indulging the presumption to sustain the judgment of the lower court, where charges are involved, it has never extended it to a case where evidence Avas improperly admitted or excluded” — citing Torey v. Burney, 113 Ala. 496, 21 South. 348; Postal Co. v. Hulsey, 115 Ala. 193, 22 South. 854; De Loach v. Robbins, 102 Ala. 288, 14-South. 777, 48 Am. St. Rep. 46; McDonald v. Wood, 118 Ala. 589, 24 South. 86. In the case of McDonald v. Wood, 118 Ala. 596, 24 South. 87, the majority of the court, speaking through Head, J., said: “The bill of exceptions does not purport to contain all the evidence. We cannot, therefore, review the court’s findings of fact. But the judgment must be reversed by reason of the refusal of the couxd to permit the contestee to prove that A. O. Everett, or ‘Lonny Everett,’ as he was generally called, was not a legal voter” — the case being a contest of an election. Justice Coleman, in a dissenting opinion in the same case, which was concurred in by Brickell, C. J., reviewed the decisions of this court upon the question. There seems to be no difference between the [586]*586majority opinion and the minority opinion, as to the law in snch cases; the dissent seems to be based upon what the record showed in that case — this appearing from the language of the dissenting opinion. After stating and quoting the rules of law applicable to such cases, the dissenting opinion continues thus: “I am not sure that the opinion of the court in the case at bar showed that the contest was sustained by a majority of one,.and that majority depended upon counting the vote of Everett for Carey, in whose interest the contest was prosecuted, then the court erred in refusing to receive evidence to show that he was not a legal voter, and the cause ought to be reversed. But if the record affirmatively shows that Cary was entitled to a clear majority, after rejecting the vote of Everett, the judgment of the court ought to be affirmed. It is contrary to the established practice of this court, in such cases, to presume there might have been other evidence, not stated, to overcome the affirmative evidence which is stated, and upon such presumption, reverse the case. In my opinion, the record contains sufficient evidence to support the judgment, without counting the vote of Everett for contestant, and the reversal is not founded on correct principles of justice.”

The first assignment of error is based solely upon an objection of appellant to the general mode of examining a witness. No objections were interposed to any specific question, nor was any specific ruling of the court invoked. The allowing or denying of leading questions, as a mode of examining witnesses, is largely discretionary with the trial court, and we do: not see that this discretion was abused in the instance complained of.

.-The second and third assignments go to the trial court’s allowing plaintiff’s attorney to propound to his witness certain questions. It is not necessary to decide [587]*587whether or not these questions were leading; if they were so, the court could, in its discretion, allow such questions, and we see no abuse of this discretion, nor error in allowing them at the time and in the manner complained of.

The fourth assignment of error is based upon .objections to several questions and motions to exclude several answers. The objection is not well taken to all the questions or to all the answers; and we cannot examine them separately when the objections and motions go to the whole. Neither are the questions or the answers separately set out, so as to admit of our reviewing them.

The fifth assignment of error is too indefinite and too general to be reviewed. It is based upon an objection as follows: “The defendant objected to the testimony as offered.” It does not appear to what particular testimony, or to what witnesses it was addressed — whether to a part or the whole. For this reason it cannot be considered.

The sixth assignment goes to an objection to questions, the answers to which were excluded. If error in the first instance, which we do not decide, it was without injury or was cured by excluding the answers.

The seventh, eight, and ninth assignments of error are based upon objections to evidence on the ground that the questions were leading; and it is insisted that the trial court abused its discretion in allowing these and similar questions. We have carefully examined the record, and cannot agree with counsel in the contention that there was any abuse of the discretion. In fact, some of the questions objected to, and made the bases of these assignments of error, were clearly not leading at all, and this is the only objection offered to them. One of these was: “Did you look for any symptoms or [588]*588evidence of injury .after that day on which he was struck?” This question, occurring as it did, was not subject to this objection, and we can see no abuse of discretion in allowing it or its answer.

There is nothing in the assignments of error which goes to the. mode or manner of the proof of the value of the mule injured. The trial court clearly followed the rules often declared by this court; and, moreover, it clearly appears that no injury was done appellant. If it could possibly be said that the court originally erred, as to the proper method of allowing this proof, the error was subsequently corrected, at the request and upon the objections of the appellant. It clearly appears that no injury was suffered by the appellant in this matter.

The eleventh and twelfth assignments of error go respectively to the question, “Might not a bruise or scratch have been there without your observing it?” and the answer thereto, “Well, there could have been bruises on him that I never noticed; I didn’t notice him that close.” The objections and exceptions based on this question and answer, if not captious or frivolous are certainly without merit.

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Bluebook (online)
51 So. 789, 165 Ala. 582, 1910 Ala. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-hardware-sup-co-v-standard-equip-co-ala-1910.