Opinion ID: 1754136
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: posed photographs

Text: Gorman argues that a posed photograph taken by one party to show the precise location of the parties at impact is not admissible and that the trial court, therefore, committed reversible error when Dr. Smock was allowed to use the photographs for demonstrative purposes because the jury considered them as evidence. In support of her argument, Gorman relies on Welch v. L. & N.R. Co. [1] and two of its progeny. [2] In Welch, the plaintiff suffered an injury while standing near a railroad track when two of the defendant's vehicles, a hand car and a train, collided with each other. Because her location at the time of the accident was important, she posed for a photograph purporting to show her precise location at the moment of the collision. In holding that such photographs are not admissible, the Court stated: This photograph was taken some time after the accident. Plaintiff went with the photographer and stood where she claims to have been standing when the accident occurred. In other words, she merely posed for the picture. While photographs properly proven are competent for the purpose of showing conditions existing at the time, and the fact that a person occupying the position of the injured party is shown in the photograph is not ground for rejecting it as evidence, where the photograph is used merely to illustrate to the jury the circumstances under which the accident occurred, yet photographs are not admissible, when taken after the accident, to show the precise position of the party at the time of the accident. The party assumes the position; and as the picture is taken for the purposes of the trial, and the photographer relies on her statement, the effect is the same as if the photographer had gotten on the stand and testified that plaintiff told him that she was standing at that particular place. In other words, the photograph is self-serving, and cannot be used either to corroborate plaintiff, or supply evidence, as to her precise position at the time of the injury. [3] But, while the predecessor to this Court has followed Welch in subsequent cases, [4] we find that the law regarding the admissibility of posed photographs is not so well-settled in Kentucky. In a case preceding Welch, Bowling Green Gaslight Co. v. Dean's Ex'x., [5] a lineman for a telegraph company came in contact with a live power line while working on a telegraph pole. At trial, the trial court allowed the plaintiff to introduce a posed photograph of a man on the pole in the claimed position of the decedent at the time of the accident. In its ruling upon the admissibility of the photograph, the Court stated: There can be no doubt that witnesses who were present when Dean was injured, and who saw where he was and the position he was in, could have described to the jury his attitude, the situation of the wires, and such surrounding objects as would throw relevant light on the matter being investigated. This being so, we are unable to perceive why a correct photograph of these objects and things would not be admissible as evidence. . . . When a witness describes a scene or a place, there is made in the mind of the juror a picture intended to represent what the witness said. But, if a juror can see this picture as in a photograph, he has a better and more intelligent understanding of what is represented by it than he could well get from a verbal description. The photograph only displayed objects, things, and positions that the witnesses who were present described, or might have described, as best they could. [6] And, in a case subsequent to Welch, Cincinnati, N.O. & T.P. Ry. Co. v. Duvall, [7] the plaintiff suffered injuries while boarding the defendant's train and the crucial issue at trial concerned whether the defendant failed to provide a reasonably safe means for the plaintiff to board its train. The trial court rejected a posed photograph showing a person attempting to board a train by the same steps ascended by the plaintiff at the time of the accident. In concluding that the trial court erred in rejecting the posed photograph, the Court, citing both Welch and Bowling Green Gaslight commented: When such a reproduction is made and it appears that it was done under substantially the same conditions complained of, we can conceive of no legal reason why the pictured demonstrations should not be competent. If they be true and accurate representations of the situation being investigated, we can conceive of nothing that would be more illuminating to the jury or that would be better calculated to put its members in complete possession of the actual facts. We know of no rule disallowing such evidence in such circumstances, and the cases are numerous from this and other courts upholding its competency. . . . . The practice of admitting photographs and models in evidence in all proper cases should be encouraged. Such evidence usually clarifies some issue, and gives the jury and the court a clearer comprehension of the physical facts than can be obtained from the testimony of witnesses.' [8] Tumey v. Richardson, [9] the most recent case analyzing the use of a posed photograph, only adds to this uncertainty. Following a two-vehicle accident, a wrecker moved one of the vehicles a short distance from its location after the accident but left the other vehicle in place. To show the precise location of the vehicles immediately after the accident, the wrecker driver at the direction of a state trooper moved the one vehicle back to the position that he estimated it had occupied before he moved it and the trooper then took a photograph of the vehicles. In holding the photograph admissible and that any variance in the testimony of the witnesses as to the position of the vehicles went to the weight of the evidence rather than its sufficiency, the Court first stated, [W]e have never held, where the question was raised, that photographs taken to show a witness's recollection of the location of moving objects are competent, [10] but the Court then concluded: It is to be observed that the admissibility of photographs is within the sound discretion of the trial court, and its ruling in this respect will not be interfered with on appeal except upon clear showing of an abuse of discretion. The trend of authority has been said to be to vest more discretion in the trial court in matters of this kind. The trial courts are allowed a broad discretion in admitting or rejecting photographs. [11] We have not addressed this issue now for more than thirty years. At that time, we left the law in a state of uncertainty [12] but noted a trend of authority suggesting trial courts should possess more discretion in such matters. [13] We believe it appropriate for us to reappraise the admissibility of posed photographs and eliminate the uncertainty created by our prior decisions. The rationale that we previously advanced for not admitting posed photographs, i.e., that they could be excluded as hearsay, [14] self-serving, [15] incompetent [16] and representating of the theory of only one party, [17] has been criticized [18] and characterized as mak[ing] a very unpersuasive case for shielding triers of fact from this kind of evidence . . . . [19] We agree. The principal concern of the Court in Welch and its progeny seems to have been that posed photographs bring with them an extraordinary risk of testimonial misrepresentation. [20] Wigmore criticized this objection to photographs: The objection that a photograph may be so made as to misrepresent the object is genuinely directed against its testimonial soundness. It is true that a photograph can be deliberately so taken as to convey the most false impression of the object. But so also can any witness lie in his words .... [E]xcluding the photograph as misleading may be begging the very question which the jury ordinarily have to decide; it may be as anomalous as if the judge were to order a witness from the stand because he was believed by the judge to be lying. Actual perjury should not be thus determined in advance by the judgenot more for photographic than for verbal testimony. [21] He also argued for their use: It would be folly to deny ourselves on the witness stand those effective media of communciation (sic) commonly employed at other times as superior substitute for words. If a simple line plan of a house is more satisfactory than a mass of alphabetical letters arranged in words as a mode of communicating the relative position of the house rooms as observed by us, then this method of communication is equally proper to be resorted to in a witness' communications to a jury. There can be no dispute upon this point. [22] McCormick, too, endorses the admissibility of photographs, and extends his endorsement even to those posed photographs which illustrate a matter of disputed fact: The orthodox theory of photographs as merely illustrated testimony . . . can be viewed to support the admission of any photo reflecting a state of facts testified to by a witness and the current trend would appear to be to permit even photos of disputed reconstructions in some instances. [23] We find truth in the old adage, A picture is worth a thousand words. Trial attorneys demonstrate the value of photographs on a daily basis in the courtrooms of this state and we have no doubt that photographs frequently communicate the testimony of a witness to the jury more fully and accurately than the words in the testimony do. We can find no valid reason justifying an outright prohibition against the admissibility of a posed photograph used to reconstruct events involved in litigation even where there is conflicting testimony as to the facts on which the reconstruction is based. Accordingly, we hold that the admissibility of a posed photograph is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court, and its ruling will not be interfered with on appeal except upon a clear showing of an abuse of discretion. Like other evidence, however, the trial court shall determine as a preliminary matter, prior to admitting any photograph into evidence, whether the posed photograph satisfies other requirements for admissibility. [24] First, the photograph shall be properly authenticated. [25] An authentic photograph is one that constitutes a fair and accurate representation of what it purports to depict. [26] Thus, the photograph must . . . be verified testimonially as a fair and accurate portrayal of [what] it is supposed to represent. [27] Second, the photograph must be relevant by having a tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the photograph. [28] [I]f the fact to be evidenced by the photograph is itself not admissible, obviously it cannot be proved by photograph or otherwise. [29] Third, the trial court must determine that the photograph's probative value is not substantially outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice, confusion of the issues or misleading the jury, . . . or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. [30] Because of the deceptive possibilities of photographs, they should be subject to careful scrutiny by the trial court to determine whether the photograph will lead to undue prejudice and misrepresentation. However, a variance presented by the testimony will often go to the weight of the evidence rather than to the admissibility of the photograph. [31] Additionally, [t]he trial court in its discretion may . . . reject a photograph as being under the circumstances not sufficiently `instructive'; in other words, the court may rule that cumulative testimony, by superfluously adding a pictured description to a verbal description, is on the facts not needed. [32] Gorman complains that the photographs show the model blindly walking into the path of Hunt's vehicle with her head pointed straight ahead as if she was totally oblivious to Hunt's vehicle and other vehicular traffic. Dr. Smock did not use the photographs to offer his opinion as to the direction Gorman was facing, but instead, utilized the photographs to show Gorman's position relative to Hunt's vehicle at impact. In fact, during his testimony, Dr. Smock disclaimed any opinion as to the direction Gorman was facing and whether she was moving forward at the time of the accident. These photographs did not mislead the jury. Gorman's objection addresses the evidentiary weight of the photographs, but not their admissibility. Consequently, we hold that the photographs were admissible under the Kentucky Rules of Evidence and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing Dr. Smock to use the photographs during his testimony. By not receiving the photographs as evidence to be taken to the jury room, [33] but allowing them to be used for demonstrative purposes only, the trial court properly exercised its discretion to prevent the jury from giving any undue weight to Dr. Smock's testimony as a result of the photographs.