Court Opinion

ID: 9846176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:36:16.387643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:34.752203
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially. I concur with what is said in the majority opinion, and, in addition, it should be pointed out as to Headnote 1 that counsel for the condemnor, after objecting to testimony which he contends had the effect of allowing double damage through addition of damages by taking the easement and damages to the entire remaining tract of land, went into this identical matter in his cross examination of the witness, James D. Hickox, as follows:
"Q. In other words, you figure this five acres in the easement is worth 18 to $20,000? A. Yes. Q. Then, was there any more damage that you figure besides the 18 to $20,000? Do you figure that’s the whole damage? A. That would be the damage to the farm. Q. Including the price of the land? A. That would do it. Q. In other words, you don’t make any difference between what should be paid for the easement and damage to the farm? You say the whole thing is $18,000? A. It damaged the farm that much. Q. Including the cost of the easement? A. That’s correct.”
Thus there was a waiver on condemnor’s part as to his objection to the testimony of the witness Hickox, wherein he contended the effect of the testimony of the witness was to give double damage. *309See General Tire &c. Co. v. Brown Tire Co., 46 Ga. App. 548 (3 c) (168 SE 75); Southern R. Co. v. Garner, 101 Ga. App. 371, 372 (114 SE2d 211) and cases cited therein; American Family Life Ins. Co. v. Glenn, 109 Ga. App. 122 (135 SE2d 442); Akop v. Branson, 116 Ga. App. 775 (159 SE2d 185), and cases cited therein. No reversible error was shown whether or not the testimony originally objected to should have been excluded.
It has long been the rule that a party who objects to evidence and then cross examines the witness about the identical evidence waives such objection. The dissenting opinion cites City of Atlanta v. Atlanta Title &c. Co., 45 Ga. App. 265, 267 (164 SE 224), as authority to the contrary, and quotes the following portion of said opinion: "the cross examination of the plaintiff’s witness was not the equivalent of such introduction . . . The verdict . . . can not be approved as a fair and legal termination of the case, in view of the important and apparently persuasive evidence which the court erroneously admitted in behalf of the plaintiff . . . The ends of justice demand another trial. . .” But, a close reading of this opinion shows that what the Court of Appeals held there was to decide that cross examination of a witness is not the equivalent of introducing a written document. Of course, that is true. We quote from the cited case more in detail as follows: "The defendant’s counsel did not introduce the document or any part of it in evidence, and the cross examination of the plaintiff’s witness was not the equivalent of such introduction . . .” This is a far cry indeed from taking issue with the principle cited to the effect that a party waives his objection to evidence when he cross examines the witness on the same point. The cases cited on this point support this proposition directly.
I am authorized to state that Judges Pannell and Deen concur in the above.