Court Opinion

ID: 9665093
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:39:33.454963+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:12.970177
License: Public Domain

PARRISH, Chief Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in result in part.
I concur in the result reached and in the parts of the principal opinion other than the discussions regarding Points IV and V. I respectfully dissent from the discussion with respect to those points.
Appellant’s Point IV asserts error by the trial court in overruling objections to questions related to appellant’s living arrangement with a woman to whom he was not married. The trial court permitted respondent’s counsel to ask appellant if the woman had lived in his home. After having obtained an affirmative answer, respondent’s counsel told the jury, in closing argument, “[Appellant] hasn’t lost a penny from household services. Not before he married her, he’s never hired anyone to come in and keep his house, and he hasn’t since, because Susie Riley is keeping his house for him.”
Appellant’s claim that the inquiry was improper by reason of the collateral source rule is correct. A wrongdoer is not entitled to have damages reduced by proving that a plaintiff will be indemnified for the loss from a collateral source. Iseminger v. Holden, 544 S.W.2d 550, 552 (Mo. banc 1976). It is of no significance that the woman with whom appellant lived was not married to him. See City of Bloomington v. Holt, 172 Ind.App. 650, 361 N.E.2d 1211, 1219 (1977).
I am unable to agree with the principal opinion’s analysis that the inquiry about appellant living with Susie Riley was permissible to “impeach or contradict on matters brought out on direct examination.” In my opinion, reliance on Maugh v. Chrysler Corp., 818 S.W.2d 658, 661 (Mo.App. 1991), for that proposition is misapplied. The fact that appellant testified about church activities in which he became involved with his deceased wife was not sufficient to provide license to respondent’s counsel to present evidence about appellant’s subsequent living relationship with Ms. Riley. If counsel had evidence that appellant had not participated in the activities he claimed, the principles upon which Maugh was based would have permitted such evidence. Counsel went beyond what Maugh permits. In my opinion, Point IV was well-taken.
Although counsel’s conduct in attempting a thinly veiled character attack is reprehensible, in view of the verdict, it was not prejudicial. The jury assessed 100% of fault to respondent. Therefore, there was no issue as to damages. As stated in the principal opinion, the questionable evidence impacted only damages. For that reason, I concur in the result reached regarding Point IV. The verdict demonstrates that, insofar as the trial’s outcome is concerned, appellant was not prejudiced by the trial court’s erroneous ruling.
Point V goes to the same trial conduct to which Point IV referred. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in permitting respondent’s counsel “to impeach” appellant’s character by asking questions about appellant’s relationship with Ms. Ri*560ley. Appellant’s testimony regarding his participation in church activities did not warrant respondent’s counsel’s inquiry. Respondent’s counsel’s improper attack on appellant’s character is improper because appellant’s character was not a matter that was put in issue by the nature of his cause of action. Appellant’s character was irrelevant to the issues before the court. Williams v. Bailey, 759 S.W.2d 394, 396 (Mo.App.1988); see also Reynolds v. Jobes, 565 S.W.2d 690, 694 (Mo.App.1978).
Notwithstanding the foregoing, appellant’s testimony was directed to the issue of damages. He was not a witness to the ' fatal collision; thus, the evidence presented by his testimony did not bear on the determinative issue in the case, i.e., liability. For that reason, as with respect to Point IV, I do not conclude the error that was committed was prejudicial. I therefore concur in the result reached with respect to Points IV and V. In all other respects, I concur in the principal opinion.