Opinion ID: 1890837
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Examination of Menke as an Adverse Witness.

Text: Plaintiff called Ewald Menke, the janitor at Allied's apartment building from 1946 to 1951, as an adverse witness. Counsel for Allied objected on the ground that Menke had left Allied's employ about five years prior to trial.  This objection was overruled. The controlling statute is sec. 325.14 (1), Stats., which provides in part as follows: Any party or any person for whose immediate benefit any civil action or proceeding is prosecuted or defended, or his or its assignor, officer, agent, or employee, or the person who was such officer, agent, or employee at the time of the occurrence of the facts made the subject of the examination, may be examined upon the trial as if under cross-examination, at the instance of any adverse party. (Italics supplied.) Since Menke was Allied's employee at the time of the occurrence of the facts with respect to which he was questioned by plaintiff's counsel, namely, whether Allied knew of the tree's condition during Menke's term of employment, the statute authorized Menke's being called and examined as an adverse witness. Allied's contention that this was error is without merit.