Court Opinion

ID: 9775171
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:46:59.527397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:35.016439
License: Public Domain

POPE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from that part of the opinion of the majority which holds that a photograph is not a written communication and protected from discovery by the provisions of Rule 167. The majority opinion does not disclose whether it reaches its conclusion because a photograph is not written or because it is not a communication or both. Its only treatment of the subject is contained in its holding: “We hold that photographs are not written communications and are not within the terms of the Rule 167 proviso.”
The word, “photograph,” is a joinder of the Greek words, “photo,” meaning light and “graph” meaning writing. Maps and diagrams which are prepared subsequent to an occurrence or transaction upon which a suit is based and which are made in connection with the prosecution, investigation or defense of a claim are eligible for treatment as writings within the work-product protection. Photographs have always been treated like maps and diagrams. Ill J. Wigmore, Evidence § 790 (1940); 2 C. McCormick & R. Ray, Texas Law of Evidence §§ 1464, 1465 (1956).
The holding that a photograph is not a writing under Rule 167, Tex.R.Civ.P., conflicts with our earlier decision that a photograph is “written evidence” under Rule 281, Tex.R.Civ.P. By Rule 281 jurors are permitted to take into the jury room “any written evidence, except the depositions of witnesses.” This court in Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Crow, 148 Tex. 113, 221 S.W.2d 235, 236 (1949), wrote: “In Texas it has been uniformly held by the courts that ordinary photographs constitute ‘written evidence’ as the phrase is used in Rule 281 . . . .” See Dallas Ry. & Terminal Co. v. Orr, 147 Tex. 383, 215 S.W.2d 862 (1949); Dallas Ry. & Terminal Co. v. Durkee, 193 S.W.2d 222 (Tex.Civ.App.1946, writ ref’d n. r. e.) ; Younger Bros. v. Ross, 151 S.W.2d 621, 626 (Tex.Civ.App.1941, writ dism’d); 2 C. McCormick & R. Ray, Texas Law of Evidence § 1466 (1956). It would seem that the same picture which is considered “written” under Rule 281 should also be considered “written” under Rule 167.
We come then to the other matter, whether a picture is a communication. “Communicate” means, among many things, “to make known; to give by way of information,” Webster’s New International Dictionary (2d ed. 1954). It means “to impart, bestow, or convey; to make known; to give by way of information.” Prevost v. Morgenthau, 70 App.D.C. 306, 106 F.2d 330, 334 (1939); Whitford v. North State Life Ins. Co., 163 N.C. 223, 79 S.E. 501, 502 (1913). A “communication” denotes the fact that one person has brought an idea to the perception of another. Restatement of Torts § 559, comment a (1938). A photograph is one form of communication. Restatement of Torts § 565, Illustration 1 (1938). Information may be *551communicated in a number of different ways. One can write down a lengthy description of the arrangement of the streets of Manhattan, but an aerial photo will more clearly and fully and more quickly transmit that same information.
Pictures, like words, are effective instruments of communication. Like words, they teach. They inform. They demean. They hurt. They shock. They caution. Pictures, we have previously decided, are written evidence. I would reaffirm that holding. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Crow, supra.