Court Opinion

ID: 9772553
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:21:54.912926+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:45.567124
License: Public Domain

HYDE, Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result herein and the rulings herein other than the ruling made on refusing to admit expert testimony on the issue pointed out in the concurring memorandum of Coil, C., which I adopt as my Concurring Opinion herein and which is as follows:
“I have concurred in result in the above-styled case because I cannot go along with the manner in which Judge Holman has disposed of a point relating to the admissibility of an expert opinion.
“Pages 13, 14, and 15 of the typwritten opinion [at pages 905, 906 of 337 S.W.2d] show that plaintiff offered as an expert witness J. O. Winfrey, chief of the Fire Prevention Division of the Kansas City Fire Department. While the opinion does not disclose, I am quite certain that the record shows that Chief Winfrey was a qualified witness concerning the subjects about which he was questioned. He was asked whether hot metal slag or sparks or molten fragments resulting from the use of a cutting torch when lodged in combustible material, such as wood or mill shavings, could continue to smolder for as much as four hours without visible fire and then burst into flame. The trial court sustained an objection to the question for the stated reason that the matter was not a proper subject for expert testimony because the jury needed no assistance in determining the correct answer to the question.
“Judge Holman decides that the court did not err in sustaining the objection. I have difficulty in determining the exact reason for the holding. On page 14 [on page 906 of 337 S.W.2d] there are some general observations concerning expert testimony, including the proposition that its admission or exclusion is largely within the *911discretion of the trial court, and the stated conclusion that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the testimony in question; but the opinion then proceeds to hold that it is a matter of common knowledge that a fire may be started in combustible material and smolder for as long as several hours and then burst into flame, and therefore that ‘The jurors were qualified by personal knowledge and experience to determine the issues relating to the source of the fire without the aid of the proffered expert testimony under consideration.’ I' must assume, therefore, that the afore-quoted statement is the actual reason for the holding that the trial court did not err in excluding the testimony and, if so, it would seem that the matter of discretion is not involved.
“In any event, it seems to me that while it is certainly true that it is a matter of common knowledge that a fire may be started in combustible materials and smolder for a long time and then burst into flame, such fact does not decide the question presented. That is because, irrespective of the fact that people know generally that fire may smolder and then burst into flame, the jury in this case was entitled to know whether the sparks in this case, if lodged in the particular combustible material in question, could smolder for as much as four hours without visible fire and then burst into flame. It was plaintiff’s evidentiary trial theory that sparks from a cutting torch lodged in the material in the walls of the building in question and there smoldered four hours and thereafter burst into flame. Plaintiff was entitled to prove by expert testimony the scientific possibility of his theory under the particular facts in evidence.
“I think it would have been better for the trial court to have admitted the opinion, even in answer to the question as asked. However, I concur in result because the question as asked was improper in that it did not sufficiently hypothesize the conditions disclosed by the evidence which might have affected an answer to the question; conditions such as the construction of - a wall in which the combustible material was located, the manner in which the wood or mill shavings were contained within the wall, etc. My objection to the opinion is that it gives the wrong reason for holding that the trial court did not err in sustaining the objection.”