Opinion ID: 2279595
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Metz v. State

Text: As we observed, at trial the State argued that Ms. Walker's statements were admissible under the ruling of the Court of Special Appeals in Metz v. State, supra, 9 Md.App. 15, 262 A.2d 331, and the trial court found that to be the case, using Metz as an alternative basis for admissibility. That ruling was neither challenged by respondent nor offered by the State as an alternative basis for affirmance in the Court of Special Appeals. None of the briefs even cited Metz, and, not surprisingly, it was not mentioned in the appellate court's opinion. Neither party has cited Metz in this Court. We mention it simply because, at the State's urging, it was relied upon by the trial court. Metz did not involve a residual exception, although it did present a partially analogous fact situation. Mr. Metz was charged with, and convicted of, assaulting his wife. When the case came to trial, Mrs. Metz exercised her privilege under the then current version of § 9-106 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings article and declined to testify against her husband. The court then allowed the police officer who was called to the scene to recount what he saw upon arrival Mrs. Metz with a knot on her head and a mutilated arm and a shotgun on the floor with a spent shelland Mrs. Metz's statement that she didn't do it. Id. at 18, 262 A.2d 331. On appeal, Metz argued that his wife's statement was inadmissible under the statute, as it was covered by the privilege, and that, in any event, it was inadmissible as hearsay. The Court of Special Appeals held that the statute simply precluded a spouse from being compelled to testify, that Mrs. Metz had not been so compelled, and that the Legislature did not intend to exclude statements, otherwise admissible, voluntarily made by one spouse to police officers, simply because that spouse refuses to testify against the other. Id. at 19-20, 262 A.2d 331 (emphasis added). Because the hearsay issue had not been decided by the lower court, the Court of Special Appeals held that it was not preserved for appellate review, although the Court did, as dicta, express its view that the statement was part of the res gestae. Apart from the fact that that aspect of Metz was mere dicta, both this Court and the Court of Special Appeals have, since Metz was decided, abandoned the once-popular notion of a res gestae exception to the hearsay rule, which, accordingly, is no longer part of our law of evidence. B & K Rentals v. Universal Leaf, 324 Md. 147, 596 A.2d 640 (1991); Cassidy v. State, 74 Md.App. 1, 536 A.2d 666, cert. denied, 312 Md. 602, 541 A.2d 965 (1988). Metz does not, therefore, support the admission of a non-testifying spouse's out-of-court statements against a hearsay objection, and certainly not under a residual exception.