Court Opinion

ID: 9733233
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:59:13.126407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:39.673317
License: Public Domain

PEEK, J.
I dissent. As I view the record, it does not support the conclusion of the majority that the evidence “preponderates in favor of respondent.” It presents a close ease on the facts and one in which the verdict of the jury, whether in favor of the defendant or plaintiffs, would be sustained against an attack that it was not supported by substantial evidence. Thus if my conclusion as to the status of the evidence is at all valid, it follows that any error which otherwise might not be offensive becomes-more meaningful and therefore could well be prejudicial.
In particular I cannot agree with the majority in its approval of the action of the trial court in permitting the defendant to show sound colored motion pictures and to ring a crossing bell within the close confines of the courtroom. My objection is not directed at sound motion pictures as such, but rather at the particular pictures here in question when considered in light of the facts and issues in this ease, as well as in the *121manner of their presentation to the jury. I am entirely in accord with the views expressed in People v. Hayes, 21 Cal.App.2d 320 [71 P.2d 321], approving the utilization of sound motion pictures as a modern scientific means of ascertaining the facts. However, the propriety of the admission of such evidence in one situation is not at all determinative of the admission of like evidence in all situations. In other words, each ease must be determined on its own peculiar facts. Although somewhat fearful of belaboring this issue, nevertheless the sound motion pictures here in question point up what I feel to be a lurking vice in such evidence; that is, the inherent susceptibility to exaggeration of motion and sound, and hence, consciously or unconsciously, the creation of an entirely false impression in the minds of the jurors.
Undoubtedly our Supreme Court had somewhat the same thought when it cautioned that: “A motion picture of the artificial recreation of an event may unduly accentuate certain phases of the happening, and because of the forceful impression made upon the minds of the jurors by this kind of evidence, it should be received with caution. As pointed out by Wigmore, such a portrayal of an event is apt to cause a person to forget that ‘it is merely what certain witnesses say was the thing that happened’ ... (3 Wigmore, Evidence [3d ed.], § 798a, p. 203).” (People v. Dabb, 32 Cal.2d 491, 498 [197 P.2d 1].)
At the outset, the admission of sound motion pictures presents primarily a question of relevancy. “In other words, to be admissible motion pictures must tend to prove or disprove some issue in the case, and consequently the, relevancy of motion pictures necessarily depends upon the issues in the case and the subject matter of the film.” (62 A.L.R.2d 691.) To assist the court in determining the question of relevancy it has been held that: “In ruling upon the admissibility of photographs, the trial judge has two primary duties; one, to determine whether the photograph is a reasonable representation of that which it is alleged to portray and, second, whether the use of the photograph would aid the jurors in their determination of the facts of the case or serve to mislead them.” (Anello v. Southern Pacific Co., 174 Cal.App.2d 317, 323 [344 P.2d 843].) In that ease the accident occurred on a clear day while decedent was driving an automobile across defendant’s tracks. The locomotive involved was the conventional-type black steam engine. The court in disapproving the admission of still photographs showing a diesel engine, the *122front of which was painted a “brilliant orange,” and the train made up of a different number of cars of different shapes from those on the train involved, held that: “. . . it can hardly be said that the jury was shown an approximate reproduction, or a substantially similar representation, of that which the deceased could have seen at the time of the accident. ’ ’
In the present case the camera and sound recorder had been set up in the center of the intersection. The motion pictures began by first showing one of defendant’s freight trains approaching the intersection with its whistle blowing. The camera was then turned and focused directly upon the approximately mile-long train during the entire time it took to cross the intersection, with all of its attendant noise; and lastly, the camera was turned on the train as it receded in the distance with its whistle still blowing intermittently. It thus appears that in the present case the disparity between what the jury was shown and what the deceased could have heard or seen at the time of the accident is even more pronounced than in the Anello ease. Bearing in mind that the accident occurred at an unlighted intersection on a foggy night, how can it be said that the pictures were an approximate reproduction or even a substantially similar representation of the situation as it existed immediately prior to the time of the accident ?
However, the defendant, in support of the action of the trial court, argues that since one of plaintiffs’ contentions was that under the facts the train should have been stopped sooner, the pictures were proper because “laymen . . . not acquainted with railroad equipment, will consider that a train might be as maneuverable as an automobile” and also to show “the tremendous problem in stopping the equipment, and the short length of time that the train crew had to react.” The majority opinion agrees at least to a degree with defendant’s argument, holding that: “. . . the motion picture would have some relevancy in determining the time the train crew had to react from the time the train reached the whistle post until it reached the crossing.” It is true that one of plaintiffs’ contentions was that the train should have been stopped sooner. But in the motion picture no attempt whatever is made to show “the tremendous problem in stopping the equipment” or that the train was not “as maneuverable as an automobile”; and furthermore, since the pictures were taken in broad daylight they did not show the only thing visible at night, the headlight, which counsel for defendant admits was “obviously” the only thing which the driver of the car could have seen.
*123As previously stated, the sound pictures did not in any way portray the purpose for which they were introduced; nor did they in any way depict the physical surroundings existing at the time of the accident, except for the facts that a diesel locomotive and a comparable number of freight cars were crossing the same intersection, the diesel had a whistle, and there was a bell at the intersection.
Lastly, the motion pictures were shown to the jury with all of the attendant sound of a diesel engine with a 5,000-foot-long-freight train thundering across the intersection with its air horn blowing intermittently, and all within the narrow confines of the courtroom. Defendant’s witnesses admitted the sound was not proportionate and it is difficult to see how it could have been in the closed room. One of the issues in the case was whether the whistle had been blown. Obviously, therefore, the extraordinarily distorted noise of a fast-moving freight train, as well as the volume of the whistle on the diesel, were significant. The same argument is equally relevant to the ringing of the bell in the courtroom, which unquestionably distorted its sound.
The only question remaining, then, is whether this error was so prejudicial as to warrant a reversal (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 4%). I am of the opinion that it was.
One of the principal issues of this case was the contributory negligence of the decedent. I am convinced that the sound motion pictures and bell were irrelevant and extremely damaging to the plaintiffs on this issue. By such evidence it was indelibly impressed upon the jury that no man, reasonably prudent or not, would have failed to be sufficiently warned of the impending disaster, and hence, to remain in the automobile under such conditions was tantamount to a desire to end his own life. In addition, it should be remembered that at the first trial this evidence was not offered and the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs; whereas in the present case, on retrial, it was offered as the final dramatic evidence on behalf of the defendant who, at the conclusion of the showing, rested its ease.
Por the reasons set out above the judgment and order should be reversed.
A petition for a rehearing was denied March 14, 1961. Peek, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Appellants’ petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied April 12, 1961. Peters, J., and Dooling, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.