State v. Hartfield

609 P.2d 390, 45 Or. App. 639, 1980 Ore. App. LEXIS 2397
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 7, 1980
Docket78-10-15935, CA 14132
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 609 P.2d 390 (State v. Hartfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hartfield, 609 P.2d 390, 45 Or. App. 639, 1980 Ore. App. LEXIS 2397 (Or. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinions

[641]*641BUTTLER, P. J.

Defendant appeals his conviction on two counts of arson, one in the first and one in the second degree, and for burglary in the second degree in violation of ORS 164.325,164.315 and 164.215. The convictions for burglary in the second degree and arson in the second degree were for unlawful entry into a shoe store for the purpose of committing arson, and for arson of that store. He was convicted of arson in the first degree for placing a nearby home in danger of fire.

Defendant raises a number of assignments of error. Although we conclude that it was error to allow the state’s handwriting expert witness to base his opinion on documents which were improperly admitted, the error was not such as to require reversal, and we affirm.

Shortly after midnight on May 11, 1978, fire was discovered at a Kinney Shoe Store located at 1331 North Lombard, Portland. Two persons were seen emerging from the building shortly after the fire started. Within a very short time the building was burning fiercely. The smoke was so thick that a house about 60 feet from the store was evacuated. The blaze was a hot, fast fire and there is no dispute that arson was the cause.

Investigation led to defendant and Richard Losh, the latter of whom negotiated a guilty plea of second degree arson prior to the trial of defendant. Losh was the state’s chief witness at trial.

Losh testified that defendant offered him $250 to assist in the destruction of merchandise and records in the Kinney store because the store manager, a friend of defendant, feared a pending audit and had hired defendant to destroy the store contents.

The afternoon before the fire, the witness testified, he found tacked to his door a note reading: [642]*642Losh testified that he recognized the handwriting as defendant’s and that he found $20 under the floor mat of his car, where defendant had previously told him money for the purchases would be left.

[641]*641"Here’s some money buy the can’s and gas. don’t forget to think about how to light it. Rick OKsee you at 9:00 be at Waddles Jan Beach.”

[642]*642With that money Losh purchased two five gallon gasoline cans and filled them with gasoline. He said he met defendant at Waddle’s restaurant at Jantzen Beach that evening and they drove to the Kinney Shoe store. Losh testified defendant unlocked the back door with a key, which defendant said was given him by the manager. Once inside, he and defendant poured gasoline throughout the store, Losh ignited the gasoline and he and defendant made a hasty exit. However, Losh received burns requiring his hospitalization.

The state attempted to corroborate the accomplice’s testimony further by expert testimony tending to prove that defendant wrote the note produced by Losh. The handwriting expert, a corporal with the Oregon State Police, compared the handwriting on the note with employment applications for Kinney Shoe Corporation, a Naturalizer Shoe store, and documents kept [643]*643in personnel files from Nordstrom’s, all of which purported to contain defendant’s handwriting and signature. The witness also was supplied with defendant’s signature on a constitutional warning rights form and a handwriting exemplar written by defendant at the Fire Marshall’s office after he was taken into custody,1 neither of which was used as an exemplar.

The witness testified that by using the employment applications as exemplars it was his opinion that there was a strong possibility defendant had written the note; he was 90% sure. He said he could not be positive because the samples of handwriting were so few.

Defendant contends that the handwriting comparison was improper because the witness had compared the writing on the note with handwriting samples admitted in evidence over defendant’s objection on the ground that they were not "admitted or treated as genuine by [defendant]” as required by ORS 42.070. That statute provides:

"Evidence respecting the handwriting may also be given by a comparison made by a witness skilled in these matters, or the jury, with writings admitted or treated as genuine by the party against whom the evidence is offered.”

The statute sets a strict standard, the purpose of which is to avoid raising collateral issues. The test is not whether the exemplar used for comparison with a questioned writing is genuine, but whether the party against whom the evidence is offered (the defendant here) admits the writing is genuine or treated it as such. The state’s argument that circumstantial evidence supports the genuineness of the writings is beside the point.2 The court in State v. Tice, 30 Or 457, 460-61, 48 P 367 (1897), after reviewing the rules [644]*644followed at common law and those used in various states, stated:

"Our enactment touching the subject differs from any that we have been able to find. * * * The tests of the standard prescribed by the section quoted must be held to exclude any other test that might be permissible elsewhere. Applying these tests, it is clear that the genuine will of Nancy M. Love ought not to have been admitted for the sole purpose of instituting a comparison between the signature to the alleged forged will with her mark constituting her signature to the true one. It does not appear from the record that the defendant had admitted, nor is it shown that he had treated, the true will as a genuine writing; so that it was not competent for the witness, admitting that he was a person skilled in such matters, to institute the comparison.”

In State of Oregon v. Cahill, 208 Or 538, 544, 293 P2d 169, 298 P2d 214, cert den 352 US 895 (1956), the Court elaborated on the statutory rule:

"It follows that a signature acknowledged by the defendant to be genuine is admissible for comparison by experts with the questioned document, but signatures proven to be genuine but not ’admitted or treated as genuine’ are not admissible for such purpose. Whether this statutory restriction is wise is not for us to say. The statute is valid and violation of it was error. The legislative purpose in enacting the statute is fairly obvious. The receipt of signatures claimed to be genuine for comparison with a signature claimed to be false, might lead to an almost endless excursion into collateral issues. The jury would first have to resolve every contested question as to the genuineness of the signatures offered for comparison before it could safely use them for comparison with the signature on the questioned document. Signatures conclusively proven to be genuine are as relevant and as significant for purposes of comparison, as signatures 'admitted or treated as genuine’ by the defendant.
"The use of the nine checks for comparison was error, not because they were not genuine, and not because they were without probative value, but [645]*645simply because they were a type of evidence forbidden by the statute on the grounds of extrinsic policy— the avoidance of collateral issues.

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Related

State v. Wood
678 P.2d 1238 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1984)
State v. Hartfield
624 P.2d 588 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1981)
State v. Roy
619 P.2d 648 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1980)
State v. Hartfield
609 P.2d 390 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1980)

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Bluebook (online)
609 P.2d 390, 45 Or. App. 639, 1980 Ore. App. LEXIS 2397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hartfield-orctapp-1980.