Court Opinion

ID: 9718289
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:20:24.518652+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:53:13.193782
License: Public Domain

GARDNER, P. J.
I dissent.
As this court said in Sand v. Mahnan, 248 Cal.App.2d 679 [56 Cal.Rptr. 691], “. . . it is not error to give an instruction on a theory advanced by a party if there is any evidence at all on which to base it, although this evidence may be slight or inconclusive. [Citations.] The question is whether the record contains any evidence, including inferences to be drawn from the circumstances, that plaintiff knew and appreciated the danger. [Citations.]” (Sand v. Mahnan, supra, p. 687.)
In my opinion, the record in this case contains sufficient evidence, from which a reasonable inference may be drawn that from Carr’s knowledge and observations he knew and appreciated the danger involved in his undertaking. Therefore, the instruction on assumption of risk was proper.
I also feel that the evidence of the decedent’s background was properly received.
In the first place, the only objection to a prior conviction on the ground that it was inflammatory was that made as to the rape conviction. That objection was sustained. Insofar as the check conviction was concerned, the only objection made to this, was that it was not a felony because the dece*547dent drew county time. No ruling was made on this issue and none was called for since counsel for the plaintiffs presented evidence of the check conviction and the fact that Carr spent time in jail as the result of this conviction. Additionally, the plaintiffs’ attorney brought up Carr’s extramarital activities on direct examination of the widow. It is basic that when inadmissible evidence is offered there must be an objection at the time of trial or it may not be raised on appeal. Failure to object at all waives the defect. (Witkin, Cal. Evidence (2d ed. 1966) § 1285, p. 1188.) Thus, insofar as the check conviction and Carr’s extramarital activities are concerned, the matters were brought out by plaintiffs’ counsel and, in addition, there was no objection made concerning the extramarital activities. In this respect, counsel said, “There is going to be some offer of proof, I understand, that there was another woman, and if his Honor feels that is admissible, that doesn’t concern me too much, I can cover that without any difficulty, but the prior statutory rape felony I think is so highly prejudicial that the jurors just couldn’t forget it.” Thereafter, as indicated, the trial judge sustained the objection to the statutory rape and the plaintiff himself brought out the matters now complained of.
Secondly, under the authority stated by the majority, the evidence of Carr’s extramarital affairs, his bad check conviction, and his time in custody on both charges were admissible, even though objection had been made thereto. I find nothing so dreadfully inflammable or inherently improper in telling the jury the truth.
The majority suggests that the jury merely be advised that the defendant was missing for the years he was in custody. (On a secret peace mission for the United Nations? Exploring the upper regions of the Amazon? A medical missionary in the jungles of New Guinea? A prisoner of war?)
A defendant, even a rich, soulless corporation, is entitled to show the disposition of the decedent to contribute financially to support his heirs and to show his earning capacity and his habits of industry and thrift since all have a bearing on the value of his life to his wife and family. (McDonald v. Price, 80 Cal.App.2d 150 [181 P.2d 115].) If the decedent had been a hard-working, law-abiding citizen and a paragon of all the virtues of honesty, thrift and probity who supported his wife and children and afforded them a stable home, the plaintiff would be entitled to so prove. If, on the other hand, he was an irresponsible, philandering, check-kiting jailbird, the jury would be entitled to so know. The jury is entitled to the whole picture—warts, wrinkles and all—not a sterilized, unreal, retouched portrait which amounts only to a shadowy silhouette of the real man. As Mr. *548Moto, that well-known Japanese philosopher of the 1930’s once said, “Candor are a lovely virtue.”
I would affirm the judgment.