Court Opinion

ID: 9685574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:48:56.971275+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:07.831027
License: Public Domain

LARSON, Justice
(dissenting):
The majority finds reversible error because (1) there was no direct evidence Mrs. Judge had been designated to take blood by a licensed physician, and that the evidence she had been taking blood samples at the hospital for over 19 years as a registered nurse did not raise a permissible inference that she was so designated, and (2) the description of the syringe used to withdraw defendant’s blood as a “disposable syringe” did not raise a permissible inference that it was factory-wrapped or sterile. I cannot agree. To so hold carries the foundation requirements we have announced to an extent never intended. The sole purpose of these requirements is to insure the correctness of the blood test analysis before it can be admitted in any civil or criminal case. From the evidence introduced I have no difficulty in finding a permissible inference that Mrs. Judge was a properly-designated person to take blood from the defendant, and that the requirement that the syringe used was factory-wrapped and sterile by the description “disposable syringe” was adequate. It is unreasonable to require stereotyped phrases to sufficiently meet these foundation requirements, in my opinion. I would affirm.