Court Opinion

ID: 9849036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:33:26.997973+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:57.706551
License: Public Domain

Grice, Justice,
concurring specially. Although I agree with the majority opinion that the judgment should be reversed, I do not agree with all that was said there. Therefore, I feel it my duty to give my views as to those rulings with which I disagree.
1. Division 1 of the opinion rules that the following extract from the court’s order setting a pretrial conference is error: “In the meantime all matters pending for a hearing in said case and cause of action, including the motion to modify the restraining order, the notice to take the depositions of the plaintiff, and the notice to produce certain records, documents, transactions, etc., are hereby postponed and continued, and held in abeyance until after said pretrial conference of said attorneys and until the further notice of this court.”
The reasons given by the majority opinion for holding this portion of the order erroneous are that “The act of 1953 (Ga. L. 1953, Jan.-Feb. Sess., p. 269; Code Ann. §§ 81-1013, 81-1014) . . . does not directly, or by inference, confer upon the judge of the superior court any power to vacate, modify, or set aside valid proceedings pending in the cause in which such pretrial conference is set by the court.” And, further, that the above quoted portion of the order was “without motion seasonably made, without notice, was without any cause shown by the plaintiff or his counsel” as required by Code Ann. § 38-2105 (b) (Federal Rule 30 (b)).
As I view what occurred in this respect, the court’s order was *272not contrary to any of the statutes named. It merely postponed, continued, and held in abeyance those matters specified therein, so that they could be properly determined.
The pretrial conference statute, Code Ann. §§ 81-1013 and 81-1014, was not violated. This order preserved the status quo of increasingly complex litigation until the court could confer with the parties’ attorneys in an effort to aid in the disposition of the action, as envisioned by Code Ann. § 81-1013. The authority given by that section to direct pretrial conferences would be of little practical value if the proceedings for consideration could not be stayed pending the conference.
Nor was the order violative of Code Ann. § 38-2105 (b) (Federal Rule 30(b)). That section provides: “After notice is served for taking a deposition by oral examination, upon motion seasonably made by any party or by the person to be examined and upon notice and for good cause shown, the court in which the action is pending may make an order that the deposition shall not be taken, or that it may be taken only at some designated place other than that stated in the notice, or that it may be taken only on written interrogatories, or that certain matters shall'not be inquired into, or . . . [etc.]” Obviously, that section contemplates an order of finality, not one merely suspending proceedings until the proper procedure can be ascertained. The order here staying the specified proceedings pending the pretrial conference was of the latter type. Subsequently to the conference, in which counsel for both parties participated, these matters went forward, a final order being made as to the matters which the order under consideration had suspended.
Therefore, as I view it, this order was not erroneous.
2. The third division of the opinion holds, as I understand it, that the interrogatory procedure was void because of each of the following: (i) a party may not take his own written interrogatories for use as evidence in a pending action; (ii) the exclusion of defendant and her attorneys from the taking of plaintiff’s own interrogatories prohibited their use upon the trial; (iii) a plaintiff in a divorce action cannot establish his case by written interrogatories, under the facts existing here; and (iv) the defendant was denied the right of cross-examination by not being allowed to orally cross-examine the plaintiff.
*273I agree with the result that the interrogatory procedure was void, but I disagree with three of the four bases upon which it appears to be predicated. The rulings referred to in numbers (i), (iii) and (iv) above are, in my opinion, erroneous.
(a) As to number (iv) above, I agree that the defendant’s right of cross-examination was abridged and that such abridgment voided the interrogatory procedure, even if otherwise valid. My reasons for viewing the events here as constituting abridgment, however, are not the same as those of the majority. A number of the answers given by the plaintiff to the defendant’s questions appear to me to be evasive and for this reason, not the reason that the defendant was denied oral cross-examination, the plaintiff’s own interrogatories should have been excluded.
My own study, observation and experience are in accord with the majority opinion’s statements as to the advantages and importance of oral cross-examination. However, the right of cross-examination does not always include the absolute right to a cross-examination that is oral. In this connection, Code Ann. § 38-2105 (b) (Federal Rule 30(b)) authorizes the judge, after notice is served for taking a deposition by oral examination, to order that it be taken only on written interrogatory, which was done here.
Also, Code Ann. § 38-2101 (d) (3) (Federal Rule 26 (d) (3)) provides that a party’s own deposition (i.e., either oral or written interrogatories) may be used upon the trial for any purpose “against any party who was present or represented at the taking of the deposition or who had due notice thereof” if the court finds any one of six enumerated conditions exists (i.e., that the witness is dead, more than 100 miles from the place of trial, unable to attend due to illness, etc.). Important here is that the use of the party’s own deposition as evidence upon the trial is not conditioned upon his being subjected to oral cross-examination at any stage of the action. The provisions of Rule 26(d) (Code Ann. § 38-2101 (d)) expressly contemplate a situation such as existed here, where the judge found, from competent medical testimony by both parties’ physicians, that the plaintiff was too ill to be subjected to oral examination, either cross or direct. In such cases § 38-2101 (d) permits the party’s own written interroga*274tories to be used although he is not orally cross-examined.
It follows that the interrogatory procedure was not void because the defendant was not allowed to orally cross-examine the plaintiff.
However, the failure of the plaintiff to answer responsively the questions put to him by the defendant did void the procedure. The right of cross-examination does include the requirement that the questions, whether oral or written, be answered responsively. Furthermore, Code Ann. § 38-2108 (Federal Rule 33), relating to interrogatories to adverse parties, requires that “The interrogatories shall be answered separately and fully. . .” Although there has been no case construing our new deposition-discovery statutes in this respect, a comparable result is found in Howard v. Chamberlin, Boynton & Co., 64 Ga. 684 (4): “Where a party to a cause makes himself a witness in his own behalf, he should be held to answer strictly and minutely every interrogatory of which he has knowledge, and if he neglects so to answer, or answers evasively, such testimony [his own] should be rejected.”
I would have preferred to rest the ruling as to the interrogatory procedure on this ground alone, without reaching the other three grounds, as listed above.
(b) The ruling, referred to in number (i) above, that a party may not take his own testimony by written interrogatories for use as evidence in a pending action, is, as I see it, erroneous.
Code Ann. § 38-2101 (Federal Rule 26), entitled “Depositions pending action,” in subsection (a) provides: “Any party may take the testimony of any person, including a party, by deposition upon oral examination or written interrogatories for the purpose of discovery or for use as evidence in the action or for both purposes.” (Emphasis supplied.) Thus, § 38-2101 establishes that a party may take his own written interrogatories for use as evidence or for discovery and the fact that other rules enumerated in the majority opinion also provide for discovery is immaterial to the question here.
The import of the language quoted above is stated by Moore in his treatise on Federal Practice (vol. 4, 2nd ed., 1950): “Rule 26 is broad enough to permit a party to take his own deposi*275tion, since it provides that any party may take the testimony of any person, including a party, by deposition” (p. 1037), and “May a party introduce his own deposition as evidence at the trial? The rule provides that ‘the deposition of a witness, whether or not a party, may be used by any party for any purpose if the court finds’ [any one of the provisions enumerated in Rule 26 (d), Code Ann. § 38-2101 (d) ] ” (p. 1195). In the 1961 amendment to his treatise, Moore states: “Rule 26(a) gives a broad right to any party to take the testimony of any person, including a party, by oral deposition, pursuant to Rule 30, or by written interrogatories, pursuant to Rule 31, for the puipose of discovery or for use as evidence in the action or for both purposes.” (p. 589).
The reported cases support this view. In Richmond v. Brooks, 227 F.2d 490 (2nd Cir., 1955), the opinion shows that at the trial in New York, plaintiff, a California resident, offered her interrogatories as her proof, but the court refused to receive it and later dismissed her action for failure of proof. The Court of Appeals, citing Rule 26(a) and (d), reversed such dismissal.
In Smith v. Morrison-Knudsen Co., 22 F.R.D. 108, the court observed: “The defendants also argue that the words ‘any party’ in F.R.C.P'. 26(a) and 31, should be restricted to mean only an adverse party. There is no merit to that contention.
“Rule 26(a) explicitly reads: ‘Any party may take the testimony of any person, including a party, by deposition upon oral examination or written interrogatories. . .’ (Emphasis supplied.) Rule 31 explicitly reads: ‘A party desiring to take the deposition of any person upon written interrogatories. . .’ (Emphasis supplied.) On the other hand, Rule 33 is expressly limited by its terms to ‘any adverse party.’ (Emphasis supplied.)
“[1]' The logical conclusion, dictated by the plain language of the rules, is that rules 26(a) and 31 apply to any person, including a party, while rule 33 applies only to an adverse party.”
See, also, Fay v. United States, 22 F.R.D. 28; 28 U.S.C.A., Rule 26, commentaries, note 6, pp. 293, 294; Modem Federal-Practice Digest (West Publ. Co.), “Federal Civil Procedure,” key number 1324.
The majority opinion statement that “the sole definite pro*276vision contained therein [Code Ann. §§ 38-2101 through 38-2112; Federal Rules 26 through 37] for a plaintiff to take his own testimony is to be found in Rule 27 (§ 38-2102), entitled, ‘Depositions before action or pending appeal’ ” (perpetuation of testimony) , is thus contrary to the terms of Rule 26.
The reported cases stress that “The deposition-discovery rules must be broadly and liberally construed.” 28 U.S.C.A., Rule 26, annotations 2.
My view is that the opinion is erroneous in this respect.
(c) Another ground stated by the opinion, number (iii) above —that the plaintiff cannot by his written interrogatories establish his grounds for divorce — appears to me to be an innovation which is contrary to our law.
Regardless of what may be the practice in any other jurisdiction, such as the District of Columbia, I find no basis, either in statutes or decisions of the courts of this State for the holding made here. True, the law does and should hinder facility in the procurement of divorces. But it does not require any different method for presenting the evidence which authorizes the divorce. In fact, the legislature of this State has recently provided that “The same rules of pleading and practice applicable to ordinary civil actions, including those laws relating to the appearance day and the trial or ‘return’ term of cases shall apply to actions for divorce. . . .” (Ga. L. 1958, p. 315; Code Ann. § 30-113). It is easy to contemplate situations where one party to a marriage, who has sued for divorce, is, due to providential cause, unable to attend trial and thus cannot appear personally to establish a deserving case for divorce. Could it be soundly contended that under those circumstances his grounds could not be established by his written testimony read at the trial? If such were the rule, many miscarriages of justice would result, jparticularly where property rights are involved.
In this State, while there may be practices or customs obtaining in particular jurisdictions that parties present their evidence by personal appearance, it is a fact that literally thousands of valid divorces have been obtained through testimony taken either by oral depositions or written interrogatories. The holding here, as to the necessity for personal appearance, although *277confined to the facts of the instant case, is a departure and is, in my view, unauthorized.
3. The fourth division decides that it was error to rule adversely upon the defendant’s contentions that her alleged promise to become a citizen of the United States following their marriage was not in writing as required by the Statute of Frauds. It appears to me that the plaintiff was not relying upon this alleged promise as the basis of a contract in consideration of marriage. Intead, he was relying upon the alleged dissension between himself and the defendant on this subject as a part of her alleged cruel treatment. As I construe it, this was no place for a plea based on the Statute of Frauds and the trial judge was correct in ruling adversely to the defendant’s contentions based upon it.
4. In the ninth division it is held that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the defendant’s request to visit the home on Sapelo Island and that such denial was reversible error. Under the circumstances here, I see no abuse of discretion in continuing in force the restraining order. But in any event, the denial should not constitute reversible error since the rulings on this issue could not have affected the outcome of the case, which was over divorce and alimony.
5. In Divisions 11 and 27, the opinion holds that since the interrogatory procedure was void, there was insufficient competent testimony for consideration by the jury and for its verdict of divorce. How'ever, as I evaluate the evidence, there was sufficient competent testimony by other witnesses, namely John Walter Gates, Stratton Coyner, Frank Durant and Christian Nissen. Therefore, even eliminating the plaintiff’s testimony given by the interrogatories, there was sufficient evidence to create an issue for the jury and to authorize its verdict of divorce.
6. Division 12 holds that the temporary alimony was “wholly insufficient” and that the permanent alimony was “substantially insufficient.”
As to temporary alimony, the trial judge, under Code §§ 30-202, 30-203 and 30-206, has discretion as to the amount to be awarded. Under repeated decisions, the rule is that his award must show an abuse of discretion before this court will interfere. Here, in view of all the facts and circumstances, in-*278eluding the wife’s large separate estate of between $300,000 and $400,000, no abuse appears to me.
As to permanent alimony, the holding is predicated on there being insufficient evidence to sustain the granting of the divorce, because of the previous ruling that the interrogatory testimony was not competent evidence. However, in view of there being other competent testimony, as referred to above, authorizing the divorce on the ground of cruel treatment, there was no absolute right of the defendant to have permanent alimony. In such case it is optional with the jury whether to award alimony. Crenshaw v. Crenshaw, 197 Ga. 767 (30 SE2d 480). Hence, the wife cannot complain of the amount awarded.
I would reverse the judgment but not for all of the reasons assigned by the maj ority opinion.
I am authorized to state that Mobley, J., concurs in this concurring opinion.