Court Opinion

ID: 9654762
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:50:03.796448+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:13.263186
License: Public Domain

HAMILTON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. In my opinion this Court denied defendant the application of a rule of evidence to which it was entitled. Briefly stated:
The rule is that where a witness has been legally charged by indictment, complaint, or information and complaint, with an offense involving moral turpitude, and has been legally convicted of such of*652fense in a court of competent jurisdiction, or where the witness has been so legally charged with such offense, and presently admits his guilt, then such matters are admissible in evidence touching his credibility as a witness.
Texas & N. O. Ry. v. Parry, 12 S.W.2d 997, 1001 (Tex.Comm.App.1931, holding approved). This case is a model example for application of the rule.
There was a conviction, it involved moral turpitude, and it is relevant in this case: On February 4, 1964 plaintiff pleaded guilty to federal theft and forgery charges. He was sentenced to three years in prison and a $100.00 fine. The fine was paid, and plaintiff was placed under active probation. The active probation ended in 1965, but presumably the sentence period did not end until February 4, 1967. Plaintiff alleged he had received a back injury fifteen months later. Ten months after that he was testifying in behalf of his own cause of action in the trial of this case. He offered no testimony corroborating the accident alleged to be the cause of the injury. The only evidence corroborating his own was the testimony of his physician as to the extent of the injury which was contradicted by the defendant’s medical witness. Plaintiff’s entire cause of action hinges on his own testimony which puts his credibility in issue.
In view of the importance of the testimony and short length of time between the operative events here this conviction was material evidence in my opinion. The jury should have had the opportunity to consider the plaintiff’s dishonest conduct in the recent past when weighing his credibility as a witness. I have not found nor been cited a less appropriate case for applying the remoteness exception. Applying the exception to this fact situation emasculates the rule.
The writer agrees with the majority that a witness should not be impeached by introduction of convictions which occurred in the distant past. The trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence of a prior conviction in Dallas County Water Control and Improvement District v. Ingram, 395 S.W.2d 834 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1965, writ ref’d n. r. e.). Reversing, the Court of Civil Appeals said the twenty-eight year old conviction was too remote. Admitting fourteen year old convictions were abuses of discretion in Bunch v. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n, 209 S.W.2d 657 (Tex.Civ.App.—Texarkana 1948, no writ), and Bernard’s Inc. v. Austin, 300 S.W. 256 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1927, writ ref’d). In Missouri Pacific R. R. v. Miller, 426 S.W.2d 569 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1968, no writ), and Travelers Ins. Co. v. Dunn, 383 S.W.2d 197 (Tex.Civ.App.—El Paso 1964, writ ref’d n. r. e.), the trial courts were affirmed which excluded nine year old convictions for remoteness. However, the instant case presents an entirely different situation from those above. A conviction as recent as five years and one month falls within the rule and it should not be excluded without accompanying circumstances to justify its exclusion.
If we can say that convictions from nine to twenty-eight years old are too remote and their admission is an abuse of discretion then we may conversely say that a conviction as recent as five years and one month is not remote and its exclusion is an abuse of discretion. This position is supported by the same consideration of the facts and circumstances as the rulings on the other end of the time scale: the recent conviction of a party in interest coupled with the importance of his testimony to establish vital facts in the case — the nature of the accident and the extent of his injuries — were facts and circumstances requiring admission of the conviction evidence.
The trial court abused its discretion by excluding the testimony regarding plaintiff’s conviction. I would affirm the Court of Civil Appeals.
CALVERT, C. J., and WALKER and POPE, JJ., join in this dissent.