Opinion ID: 2232198
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of Employee.

Text: Mrs. Rudzinski testified that she was rendered semiconscious and dazed by the fall and that afterward two men, presumably ushers, picked her up, placed her on a stool, and brushed off her clothes. Upon the request of the usher, Kuntz, one of the girl employees brought Mrs. Rudzinski a glass of water. Kuntz then asked her if she wanted to go to a hospital and she replied in the negative. He then advised her to see her doctor the next day and gave her a slip containing Kuntz's name and defendant's telephone number. Kuntz requested that she phone him and then see the doctor. Mrs. Rudzinski then noticed a janitor mopping up the floor. Plaintiffs' counsel sought to question her about a statement Kuntz allegedly made to this janitor, but the court sustained an objection thereto. An offer of proof as to this statement was then made in the form of questions put to Mrs. Rudzinski and her answers thereto. In this offer of proof, she testified that Kuntz stated to the janitor: Now you come when it's too late, after someone falls. Why didn't you come a half hour ago when I called you? and that the janitor made no response. If this excluded testimony had been admitted it would have given rise to the inference that Kuntz had actual notice of the wet spots on the center lobby floor approximately one-half hour before the accident. Kuntz later denied having had any conversation with a janitor. Plaintiffs maintain that the excluded statement was admissible both as an admission of an agent, binding his principal, the defendant, and because it constituted part of the res gestae. In order for an agent's statement to be admissible against his principal, it must have been spoken within the scope of the authority of the agent to speak for the principal. 2 Jones, Evidence (5th ed.), p. 669, sec. 355; McCormick, Evidence (hornbook series), p. 518, sec. 244; Restatement, 2 Agency (2d), p. 6, sec. 286. This principle was applied in an opinion by Mr. Justice WICKHEM, Hamilton v. Reinemann (1940), 233 Wis. 572, 577, 290 N. W. 194, and seven earlier Wisconsin decisions were cited in support thereof. Professor Edmund M. Morgan, in 2 Basic Problems of Evidence, p. 236, states: It is necessary to distinguish sharply between authority to do an act or to deal with a specified matter and authority to talk about it. The latter is usually a requisite of admissibility of statements made by the agent. The authority to speak for the principal may, of course, he implied, and usually the implications of the relationship furnish the basis for the authority. 2 Jones, Evidence (5th ed.), p. 669, sec. 355, footnote 17, and cases cited therein. However, in the instant case no foundation of agency was laid from which such an implication could be drawn. Also, the evidence is undisputed that it was not part of the duties of Kuntz to direct the work of the janitors in the theater. Therefore, there was neither express nor implied authority on his part to speak for defendant in the matter. There is a further compelling reason why the excluded statement is not admissible as an admission binding the defendant. This is because it was a statement made by one employee to a fellow employee. Restatement, 2 Agency (2d), p. 9, sec. 287, lays down the rule that statements made by an agent to his principal, or to another agent of the principal, are not admissible as admissions. The comment accompanying this section states that: Statements of agents which the principal has authorized to be made to third persons are admissible against him under the same circumstances as those made by himself, since if the principal is willing to give them to the world it is not unfair that they should be subsequently used against him. On the other hand, statements made by the agent to the principal or to other agents are statements which the principal does not intend to be given to the world or to be considered as his statements. He does not in any way vouch for their truth. The historical fiction of the identity of principal and agent is not operative in transactions between them. Ibid., comment a. We turn now to the question of whether the alleged statement was admissible as part of the res gestae. While this state has not adopted the American Law Institute Model Code of Evidence, we deem that Rule 512 thereof states the law of Wisconsin with respect to statements admissible under the concept of res gestae. Rule 512 states (p. 262): Evidence of a hearsay statement is admissible if the judge finds that the hearsay statement was made (a) while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition which the statement narrates or describes or explains, or immediately thereafter; or (b) while the declarant was under the stress of a nervous excitement caused by his perception of the event or condition which the statement narrates or describes or explains. In a 1951 decision, this court stated the Wisconsin rule in similar terms: It is generally held that to be part of the res gestae the declaration must be contemporaneous with the act or transaction. In some cases spontaneity of the declaration is considered a substitute for the time element. Krasno v. Brace (1951), 259 Wis. 12, 15, 47 N. W. (2d) 314. In stating that spontaneity of the declaration may be a substitute for the time element, this court undoubtedly was referring to a situation where the witnessing of a startling event had caused such shock to the witness that his statement shortly after the event was spontaneous and not the result of reflection or contrivance. Cf. Scrafield v. Rudy (1954), 266 Wis. 530, 532, 64 N. W. (2d) 189. Wigmore expresses the view that the probability of trustworthiness of the statement rests in the fact that in the stress of nervous excitement the reflective faculties may be stilled and the utterance may become the unreflecting and sincere expression of one's actual impressions and belief. 6 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed.), p. 139, sec. 1749. This court has confined the rule of res gestae to statements concerning the event being contemporaneously described or statements which were the spontaneous result of such event. Kamp v. Coxe Bros. & Co. (1904), 122 Wis. 206, 212, 99 N. W. 366. Wigmore states the rule as follows (6 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed.), p. 155, sec. 1750): The utterance must relate to the circumstances of the occurrence preceding it. This is perhaps a cautionary rather than a logically necessary restriction. If, for example, after an assault, the injured person exclaims that in the previous week the attacking party had tried to shoot him, there is perhaps no less reason for trusting that part of his utterance than any other part. Nevertheless, it is possible to argue that such utterances imply to some extent a process of reflection or deliberate reasoning; and practically there is not the same necessity for employing them. It seems clear, on the precedents, that utterances thus relating to some distinct prior circumstance would not be received. Kuntz's alleged statement did not relate to the startling event, which plaintiffs contend provided the spontaneity for the statement, but to another event which had occurred one-half hour before. Thus, it was not admissible under the rule of res gestae. It should also be noted that where a hearsay statement, claimed to be the spontaneous result of a startling event witnessed by the declarant, is sought to be admitted as part of the res gestae, the trial court is clothed with wide discretion in ruling on admissibility. State v. Dunn (1960), 10 Wis. (2d) 447, 457, 103 N. W. (2d) 36; Kressin v. Chicago & N. W. R. Co. (1928), 194 Wis. 480, 486, 215 N. W. 908; Johnson v. State (1906), 129 Wis. 146, 152, 108 N. W. 55. In the instant case, Kuntz was not a participant in the accident and the trial court could have concluded that, at the time he allegedly made the statement to the janitor, he was no longer under any emotional stress from the accident, if he ever had been.