Opinion ID: 1701544
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the sweatmans' hearsay objections

Text: The Sweatmans cite as error the trial court's ruling excluding certain testimony of their daughter Sandra. Specifically, the trial judge sustained Bank's objections to her testimony about what Dwight Kline is alleged to have said in the presence of Mrs. Sweatman, Sandra, and J.B. Smith, concerning the issue of Mr. Sweatman's drinking and foreseeable problems with the Sweatmans' fire insurance. The trial judge excluded such testimony on grounds that it was hearsay. An error in excluding evidence is harmless where it is admitted at another time or in another form. In Jemison v. Belcher, Ala., 368 So.2d 849, it is stated: We cannot agree that the trial court's refusal to admit into evidence testimony regarding the cutting of timber was reversible error. The same evidence sought to be elicited from the defendant was established by the testimony of another witness who testified that defendant had cut trees within the disputed area. Thus, if its exclusion was error, it was harmless since such evidence was otherwise admitted during trial. Chambers v. Culver, 289 Ala. 724, 272 So.2d 236 (1973); McLemore v. Alabama Power Company, 289 Ala. 643, 270 So.2d 657 (1972). Jemison, at 389 So.2d 850. (Emphasis supplied.) We note from the record that both J.B. Smith and Mrs. Sweatman testified in detail concerning the meeting at which Kline is alleged to have fraudulently persuaded Mrs. Sweatman to release title in her homeplace to Sandra. In this light, we pretermit any determination as to whether Sandra's proffered testimony was hearsay, or escaped such prohibition by not being offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. It is difficult to comprehend what additional facts, if any, Sandra might have adduced as having transpired at the meeting. For the sake of clarity, we make one further observation: The harmless error rule of Jemison is not to be taken as an absolutism. That is to say, the mere fact that the same evidence sought to be elicited from the witness was adduced through other witnesses does not automatically, and of itself, render the trial court's refusal of such evidence harmless error. The trial judge does not have unlimited discretion to refuse admission of cumulative testimony; nor will he be spared reversal on harmless error grounds where he bars the testimony of a witness solely because the fact sought to be proved by the proffered testimony has already been established by the testimony of another witness. The harmless error rule must be tested by the circumstances of each individual case. Where, as here, the objective or historical facts are not in dispute, and the asserted purpose of the proffered evidence does not extend beyond, or tend to prove, other inferences of disputed ultimate facts, the proffered testimony is purely cumulative; and, although admissible, its exclusion will not form the basis for reversible error. The ultimate disputed fact which Plaintiffs sought to prove by this testimony was that the Sweatmans' deed to the Klines was fraudulently induced. The undisputed objective or historical fact from which, according to Appellants' contentions, the trial court, as factfinder, could reasonably infer such ultimate fact, was Klein's statement regarding the necessity or desirability for the conveyance by the Sweatmans to him and his wife. Assuming, without deciding, that the hearsay issue should be resolved favorably to Appellants, we hold that the proffered testimony was cumulative, at best; and any error associated with its exclusion was harmless and not a sufficient basis for reversal. The evidence of record in the instant case clearly supports the trial court's findings of fact; and the judgment, therefore, is due to be, and hereby is, affirmed. AFFIRMED. TORBERT, C.J., and SHORES, BEATTY and ADAMS, JJ., concur.