Opinion ID: 1709398
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: On the Administrator's appeal.

Text: Invoking the exclusionary rule laid down in Housman v. Fiddyment, Mo.Sup. en Banc, 421 S.W.2d 284, the administrator claims error in the admission over his objection of the opinion testimony of Highway Patrol Trooper Keck that the skid marks leading out of the side road were laid down by the Marshall pickup truck. Assuming that this testimony was inadmissible under Housman v. Fiddyment and that its admission in evidence over proper and timely objections would have been error, the administrator is in no position to complain for the reason that testimony of the same tenor had been received without objection. On the direct examination of Trooper Keck, without any objection by counsel for the administrator, Keck testified extensively about tire marks, location of debris, location and direction of skid marks made by the Bobbitt automobile leading up to the point of impact and by both vehicles following impact, using in connection with his testimony a blackboard copy of the chart he prepared in the course of his investigation. That copy of the chart, prepared for exhibition to the jury, showed skid marks made by both vehicles both before and after impact, probable point of impact, and skid marks made by the Marshall pickup truck, 15 feet in length on the gravel side road and 19 feet in length on the highway. Among other things counsel for defendant Bobbitt then elicited from the trooper that he found other tire marks laid down at the scene, coming out of the side road onto the highway, 15 feet on the gravel road and 19 feet on the paved portion of the highway, to the point of impact where the debris was centered, and that the witness had marked these skid marks down on the official plat he prepared as having been made by the pickup truck. Counsel for the administrator made no objection to these several references to the skid marks notwithstanding they were directly connected with the Marshall pickup truck on the plat, which was in plain view of the jury. Having failed to object to this evidence when it first entered the case the administrator waived the right to have it excluded. Sullivan v. Union Electric Light & Power Co., 331 Mo. 1065, 56 S.W.2d 97, 104[17], and numerous other cases cited in State ex rel. State Highway Commission v. Warner, Mo.App., 361 S.W.2d 159, 164, fn. 3. This is the only point made by the administrator on this appeal. The court did not err in overruling the administrator's motion for a new trial. Accordingly, the order sustaining defendant Bobbitt's motion for a new trial is reversed; the order overruling the administrator's motion for new trial is affirmed; and the cause is remanded with directions to reinstate the verdict of the jury and enter final judgment for plaintiff and against both defendants for $25,000. STOCKARD, C., concurs.