Court Opinion

ID: 9666880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:29:19.309053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:33.126131
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing
SIMPSON, Justice.
The appellee urges that it is not reversible error to admit expert opinion evidence on a matter of common knowledge, citing Norwood Clinic, Inc., v. Spann, 240 Ala. 427, 199 So. 840.
Further research confirms the opinion on original deliverance that it is reversible error to admit expert opinion evidence on a matter of common knowledge, because such evidence invades the province of the jury. We will review briefly some of our cases holding to this view.
The trial court was reversed for admitting a doctor’s opinion that the loss of one arm works total disability to do manual labor for the reason that an expert witness cannot “invade the province of court or jury in dealing with matters of common knowledge.” Equitable Life Assur. Soc. of United States v. Davis, 231 Ala. 261, 164 So. 86, 89.
The Gillette case, cited in the original opinion, reversed the lower court on the single ground of the admission of expert opinion evidence on a matter of common knowledge. Testimony by a school principal to the effect that the plaintiff was not “really able to teach school” was admitted. The case states: “We are of opinion that in this ruling there was error. It admitted opinion evidence on one of the complex issues for the solution of the jury.” Capital Motor Lines v. Gillette, 235 Ala. 157, 177 So. 881, 885.
An early Alabama case on the point reversed the trial judge for admitting expert evidence on the effect of a piece of iron striking a scaffold upon which the deceased was standing. The court said that “the natural effect of the iron’s striking against the scaffold was a matter within common knowledge, and the jury was as competent to form an opinion as a witness; and we think the court in this respect erred in permitting the witness to give his opinion against the objection of the defendant.” Decatur Car Wheel & Mfg. Co. v. Mehaffey, 128 Ala. 242, 29 So. 646, 651.
This Court, in Burnwell Coal Co. v. Setzer, 191 Ala. 398, 67 So. 604, 607, said that “An expert witness, qualified tO' that end, may give his opinion as to the safety or danger of a place, or an appliance,, when that issue is involved on the trial.” That is true, but the admission of expert opinion evidence on the safety or danger of a place when that issue is involved on the trial is not inconsistent with, rather it is limited by, the rule that an expert witness may not testify to a matter of common knowledge. An examination of the Setzer case shows that the matter there inquired about was a proper case for expert testimony and not a matter of common knowledge.
True, the trial court has a certain amount of discretion in the admission of expert testimony. But that discretion goes, to the qualification of the expert. Kozlowski v. State, 248 Ala. 304, 27 So.2d 818; Johnson v. Battles, 255 Ala. 624, 52 So.2d 702. And it would be outside the scope of that discretion to allow the expert to testify to a matter of common knowledge.
The holding in the Norwood Clinic case,, supra, that it was not error to admit expert opinion evidence on a matter of common knowledge was not necessary to a decision on the point considered and is somewhat in conflict with the foregoing cases, and we are unwilling to accept it as authority to avert a reversal for the admission of the stated evidence.
*125Applicant cites § 437, Title 7, Code of 1940, as supporting his contention that “the safety or danger of a place as affected by railroad tracks is not a matter of common knowledge and opinion evidence is admissible.” We are not impressed with the force of this contention. In the light of former decisions of this Court, we do not think the statute could be construed as meaning that with respect to the particular evidence under consideration it could be said that such is not a matter of common knowledge or that expert opinion evidence is admissible on that question.
Many authorities are cited and cogently argued by appellee, but it would unduly burden this opinion to treat each of them. Suffice it to say that after much study of applicant’s able brief, we are constrained to adhere to the original opinion.
Rehearing denied.
All the Justices concur.