Court Opinion

ID: 9709054
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:39:04.507153+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:45.648240
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I should like to gallop off again, in search of a terminology that has at least some degree of clarity.
We should not distinguish, but should disapprove, Commonwealth v. Nowalk, 160 Pa.Super. 88, 50 A.2d 115 (1946). There is not, and should not be, an “earliest opportunity exception” to the hearsay rule. We should not refer to “the res gestae exception”; most especially we should not define “the res gestae exception” as limited to “spontaneous utterances caused by [an] exciting event.” Majority Opinion at 705, 706. There is no “res gestae exception,” that is, there is not unless, like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, you think it all right for words to mean what you say they mean.*
Sometimes those who say there is a “res gestae exception” refer to an utterance not hearsay at all, because not offered for its truth but for the fact of its utterance (this appears to have been the original meaning; see Wigmore, quoting Thayer, 6 Wigmore, Evidence § 1767 (Chadbourn rev. 1976)). Other times they refer, as does the majority here, to an utterance that although hearsay, is more accurately describ*108ed by reference to one of four established, and distinct, exceptions, namely: declarations of present bodily conditions (“my head aches”); declarations of present mental state (sad to say, the typical case seems to be a husband who says, “I hate my wife”, see, e. g., Benwell v. Dean, 249 Cal.App.2d 345, 57 Cal.Rptr. 394 (1967)); excited utterances (“Oh God . . It wasn’t your fault . . . said at the scene of an accident, Wright v. Swann, 261 Or. 440, 493 P.2d 148 (1972)); and unexcited declarations of present sense impressions (“We’ll find them somewhere on the road wrecked if they keep that rate of speed up”, said by passenger in car being passed by another car, Houston Oxygen Co. v. Davis, 139 Tex. 1, 161 S.W.2d 474 (1942)). And see Commonwealth v. Dugan, 252 Pa.Super. 377, 381 A.2d 967 (1977) (concurring opinion).
This statement of the law has been explicitly approved by our Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Pronkoskie, 477 Pa. 132, 383 A.2d 858 (1978). There, as here, the Commonwealth defended the admissibility of certain out-of-court utterances “on the theory that they qualify under the res gestae exception.” 477 Pa. at 136, 383 A.2d at 860. The Court, quoting Morgan’s characterization of “res gestae” as “a Latin phrase to serve as a substitute for reasoning,” 477 Pa. at 137 n. 3, 383 A.2d at 860 n. 3, responded as follows:
As we have recognized, “res gestae ” is actually a generic term encompassing four discrete exceptions to the hearsay rule: (1) declarations as to present bodily conditions; (2) declarations of present mental states and emotions; (3) excited utterances; and (4) declarations of present sense impressions. [The footnote quoting Morgan comes here.] See Commonwealth v. Cooley, 465 Pa. 35, 348 A.2d 103 (1975); McCormick, Evidence § 286 (2nd Ed. 1972). 477 Pa. at 136, 383 A.2d at 860.
If the Supreme Court can stop analyzing an evidence problem in terms of “the res gestae exception”, I should think we could too.
*109Having fumed and sputtered on this far, I only wish to add that I agree with the majority that Ms. Everett’s testimony should not have been admitted. The children’s utterances were not declarations of their bodily condition or mental state. They were not excited utterances within the meaning of the excited utterance exception. See Commonwealth v. Pronkoski, supra, 477 Pa. at 142, 383 A.2d at 863 (holding an utterance not “excited” because various factors “weigh[ed] against a conclusion that Tina [the declarant] was still laboring under the shock of the events to such a degree as to negate the possibility of reflective thought on her part before making the statement”). They were not unexcited declarations of present sense impressions. Finally, if one accepts the view that sometimes hearsay should be admitted even if it does not precisely fit within one of the established exceptions to the rule against hearsay, still, such admission will occur only when strong arguments can be made that the proferred hearsay is reliable and that sufficient necessity for its admission exists. 5 Wigmore, Evidence §§ 1421-1422 (Chadboum rev. 1974). Such arguments cannot be made here, for, as the majority notes, the Commonwealth had other witnesses, who were called at the preliminary hearing but not at trial.
I therefore concur in the order reversing the judgment of sentence and remanding for a new trial.

 “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’ ” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
*108“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master— that’s all.”
Through the Looking Glass, chap. 6.