Court Opinion

ID: 9660345
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:10:42.261952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:17.655163
License: Public Domain

BARDGETT, Chief Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the principal opinion, but with regard to that part of the principal opinion which deals with the competency of Rita Shafer to testify against the defendant I concur only in the result. Since 546.260 was enacted in its original form in 1879 (§ 1918 RSMo 1879) this Court has consistently held that the statute prohibits a spouse from testifying against a defendant spouse in a criminal case during the existence of the marriage except where the testifying spouse is the victim or parent of the victim. See, e. g. State v. Euell, 583 S.W.2d 173 (Mo. banc 1979); State v. Kodat, 158 Mo. 125, 59 S.W. 73 (1900) (overruled in part); State v. Willis, 119 Mo. 485, 24 S.W. 1008 (1894). No decision by this Court has approved such spouse against spouse testimony in a criminal case where the defendant spouse objects to the testimony unless such an exception was present. The right of the defendant to prevent such testimony is afforded by statute. (§ 546.260 RSMo 1978).
The principal opinion in fact agrees that § 546.260 prohibits one spouse from testifying against a defendant spouse in a criminal case over the defendant spouse’s objection. However, the majority holds that this interpretation of 546.260 is prospective from the time of Euell only. I disagree with that interpretation of 546.260. Ever since the enactment of the statute in 1879 a spouse has been prohibited from testifying against a defendant spouse where the defendant objects. This was the holding of State v. Willis in 1894 and was, in part, the holding of State v. Kodat, 158 Mo. 125, 59 S.W. 73 (1900), and has never been overruled in this respect. In State v. Euell, supra, Kodat was overruled in part but only to the extent that Kodat held a former spouse of a defendant was prohibited by the statute from testifying against the former spouse over objection. Other cases cited in the principal opinion concern exceptions to the statute, but no case cited therein deals with a spouse testifying against the defendant spouse during the course of a presently existent marriage in the context of a criminal case where the defendant objected to such testimony, except in the instance where the case involves a crime against the testifying spouse or a child of that spouse. Even State v. Frazier, 550 S.W.2d 590 (Mo.App.1977), which was the case relied upon by the trial court, did not involve a spouse testifying against a spouse. In Frazier the parties were no longer married.
The principal opinion appears concerned about “charging” the trial court with error with regard to the trial court’s reliance on dicta in State v. Frazier, 550 S.W.2d 590 (Mo.App.1977), in overruling defendant’s objection to his spouse’s testimony. The principal opinion seems to say that if a trial judge acts in good faith and relies upon *159some appellate case authority that the trial court’s ruling will stand even though erroneous and prejudicial to a party to the case.
If we begin to excuse and affirm the erroneous admission of evidence on the basis that the trial judge relied in good faith on dicta, then the rights of the parties conferred by statute become meaningless. All appellate opinions proceed on the premise that rulings by trial courts were made in good faith and upon a belief that the rulings were correct. Sometimes the rulings are incorrect and require reversal. Were it not for the fact that the wife’s testimony was admissible under the exception noted infra, I would dissent as I cannot agree that “prospective” and “retrospective” considerations play any part in a case where the right has been conferred by a statute that was effective when passed; nor can I agree that if an erroneous ruling prejudices a party that ruling can be excused and affirmed because the trial judge acted in good faith.
Section 546.260 was enacted in 1879 to relieve certain fixed, common-law disabilities, it was not enacted to create new disabilities nor to eliminate the common law exceptions which previously existed. State v. Kollenborn, 304 S.W.2d 855 (Mo. banc 1957). In Kollenborn, this Court noted the continued existence of the common-law exceptions permitting the wife to testify against her husband in the case of her own injury by the husband. It is in light of this common-law exception that I concur in the principal opinion.
Rita Shafer was the object of her husband’s violence. Prior to shooting the deceased, the defendant fired his shotgun twice into the front of the van occupied by Rita, the deceased, and the child Michele. Rita and the deceased were in the front seat at the time these shots were fired and Michele was in the rear seat of the van. Undeniably Rita Shafer was put in fear of her own and her child’s physical safety by Dale Shafer’s actions. Defendant again threatened her immediately following the shooting of Jerry Sidenstricker. Rita Shafer is therefore competent to prove the violence directed in part against her under the exception noted in Kollenborn.
Prior Missouri cases in which this common-law exception has been applied have involved circumstances in which the wife or child is the victim of the crime with which the defendant is charged. See, e. g. State v. Kollenborn, 304 S.W.2d 855 (Mo. banc 1957) (defendant charged with mistreating his infant son. Wife found competent to testify specifically on basis victim was her child.) State v. Koelzer, 348 Mo. 468, 154 S.W.2d 84 (1941) (defendant charged with assaulting his spouse); State v. Anderson, 252 Mo. 83, 158 S.W. 817 (1913) (defendant charged with assault with intent to kill his wife); State v. Pennington, 124 Mo. 388, 27 S.W. 1106 (1894) (spouse competent to testify against spouse defendant charged with assault with intent to kill spouse). Cf. State v. Vaughan, 136 Mo.App. 645, 118 S.W. 1186 (1909) (defendant charged with disturbing the peace of his spouse). In the present case defendant was not charged with a crime in which his spouse or her child were the victims but Rita Shafer and Michele Felker were nonetheless objects of Dale Shafer’s act of violence and these acts were part of the same event which gave rise to the shooting of Sidenstricker. Under the common-law exception as articulated in State v. Kollenborn, supra, at 860, a spouse is competent to testify against spouse where the latter “committed or attempted an assault or other act of violence upon the proffered witness”. Therefore in the present case Rita Shafer is a competent witness by reason of the violent action of Dale Shafer in firing upon her and the other occupants of the van, despite the fact that Rita was not the victim of the crime charged.