Court Opinion

ID: 9579209
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:52:36.455565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:34:35.177010
License: Public Domain

Bussey, Justice
(dissenting).
I do not agree with the majority opinion in its entirety or the result therein reached, and respectfully dissent therefrom in the particulars hereinafter set forth.
I concur in the majority opinion that the issue as to the disability of respondent was properly submitted to the jury for determination and that the trial judge correctly disposed of the appellant’s motion for judgment non obstante veredicto.
However, I do not think that he correctly disposed of the appellant’s motion for a new trial and I am of the opinion that the judgment-of the lower court should be reversed and a new trial ordered.
The exceptions raised a number of questions other than the principal question hereinafter discussed. With respect to *589such other questions, I am not convinced that all of them are totally without merit. However, in view of the decision of the majority, I shall address this dissenting opinion only to an issue wherein I think there was clearly prejudicial error below, whereby, in my view, the appellant was deprived of a substantial legal right and was not accorded a fair trial.
The most serious question raised by appellant’s exceptions is the contention of error on the part of the trial judge in refusing to allow appellant’s attorney to cross examine the respondent Garrett relative to the disability income that he received from other insurance companies.
In the course of and near the end of the direct examination of the respondent the following evidence was offered in his behalf:
“Q. Mr. Garrett, if you were able, would you work, go to work now ?
“A. I certainly would. I much rather be working than in the condition I am now.
“Q. The disability payments you receive, what is the comparison between that and your earned income the last year that you were employed?
“A. Some thirty-five or forty percent.
“Q. Which is more, your earned income or the amount you are paid disability from the insurance company?
“A. My earned income would be approximately three times from what I draw from these insurance companies, yes, sir.”
Appellant’s counsel sought on cross examination to elicit information as to the total amount of disability benefits drawn by the respondent and upon objection by respondent, the jury was excused. In the absence of the jury the respondent admitted that up until about December 1959 he had been receiving disability benefits from the defendant and other insurance companies in the total amount of six thousand six hundred dollars per year, and, in addition thereto, the bene*590fit of "waiver of premiums to the extent of approximately nineteen hundred dollars per annum, making a total of approximately eighty-five hundred dollars in tax-free benefits which he was entitled to receive if totally and permanently disabled, within the terms of the various policies, as against the nine thousand eight hundred sixty-five dollars, which he earned prior to taxes, when last regularly employed. The trial judge ruled this line of cross examination irrelevant and incompetent and refused to allow defense counsel to bring these facts out in the presence of the jury. This, in my view, was clearly error.
The record reflects that the respondent testified at length as to his disability and the medical testimony supporting his claim of disability is, at least in part, based on subjective symptoms, hence, whether respondent is in truth totally and permanently disabled within the terms of the policies and the applicable law depends in very great measure on his credibility.
I am, therefore, of the view that the attempted cross examination of the respondent was perfectly proper and should have been allowed for the purpose of testing the credibility of the respondent, even if he had not sought to bolster his credibility and improve his standing with the jury by giving a misleading, if not totally untrue, picture of his financial status in his alleged disabled state, as compared with his financial status while still gainfully employed.
Certainly, when he went into the issue, the appellant, as a matter of right, was entitled to cross examine him thereabout. Moreover, the record reflects that counsel for the respondent made further capital of the misleading testimony by arguing to the jury that the respondent certainly would not give up an earned income of nine thousand eight hundred sixty-five dollars per year for the sake of drawing a mere two hundred fifty dollars per month in disability benefits, unless he were truly disabled. True, no objection was made to this argument by counsel during the course of the *591argument, but the judge had,, in effect, already ruled against the appellant on this point.
In Volume 2, Conrad’s Modern Trial Evidence, Sec. 1182, it is said that the purposes of cross examination are “to provide a searching test of the intelligence, memory, accuracy and veracity of a witness; to support, modify, or explain what has been said and to develop new or old facts in a view favorable to a cross examiner, it being one of the safeguards to bring out accuracy and truthfulness; to weaken or show the untruthfulness of the witness examined or his bias or prejudice; to extract the remaining qualifying circumstances, if any, known to the witness, but previously undisclosed by him; * * *”
Again, at Sec. 1183, it is said: “The right of cross examination is a valuable right, not privilege, essential to the proper administration of justice. It is accorded to every litigant who finds himself confronted by adverse testimony and the right may not be unduly restricted or interfered with by the court.”
Further, in Sec. 1184, it is said: “that great latitude should be allowed in cross examination of certain types of witnesses, such as * * *, adverse parties, * *
58 Am. Jur. 369, Witnesses, Sec. 676, reads as follows:
“676 — Cross examination. The right to impeach a witness by cross examination is universally recognized. A fact tending to impair the credibility of a witness by showing his interest, bias, ignorance, motives, or that he is depraved in character, may be shown on cross examination.
“Cross examination of a witness to affect credibilty is largely discretionary as to the extent and period to be covered. The extent to which cross examination may be carried must be determined by the relation and apparent character and bearing of the witness under examination and the circumstances attending the particular case on trial. This does not mean that the court in its discretion may entirely exclude the testimony. Indeed, a wide range should be allowed on *592cross examination when the questions propounded seek to elicit the motives, interest, or animus of the witness as connected with the cause or the parties thereto, upon which matters he may be contradicted by other evidence. Likewise, considerable latitude should be permitted in the propounding of questions on cross examination which seek to test the memory or credibility of the witness.” (Emphasis added.)
In the case of Alford v. United States, 282 U. S. 687, 51 S. Ct. 218, 75 L. Ed. 624, opinion by Mr. Justice Stone, later Chief Justice, it was held that while the extent of cross examination with respect to an appropriate subject of inquiry was within the sound discretion of the trial court, the denial of reasonable latitude in cross examination of a witness was prejudicial error. In that case counsel for defendant was not allowed to bring out on cross examination the fact that a witness for the Government was then in custody of Federal authorities, it being contended by the defense that his testimony was possibly affected by fear or hope of favor growing out of his detention. The Court said:
“The extent of cross examination with respect to an appropriate subject of inquiry is within the sound discretion of the trial court. He may exercise a reasonable judgment in determining when the subject is exhausted. * * * But no such case is presented here. The trial court cut off in limine all inquiry on a subject with respect to which the defense was entitled to a reasonable cross examination. This was an abuse of discretion and prejudicial error.”
All pertinent decisions of this court, which have come to the writer’s attention, are in accord with the foregoing authorities.
. In the case of State v. Williamson, 65 S. C. 242, 43 S. E. 671, this Court said:
“The general rule as to cross examination is thus stated in Stephens’ Digest of the Law of Evidence: ‘When a witness is cross examined, he may be asked any questions which tend (1) to test his accuracy, veracity, or credibility, or (2) *593shake his credit by injuring his character.’ The extent of a cross examination is very largely entrusted to the discretion of the trial court. Subject to this discretion, and subject to the right of a witness to decline to answer any question tending to criminate himself, the scope of the cross examination is unlimited, when its purpose is to test the credibility of the witness.” (Emphasis added.)
The case of City of Greenville v. Spencer, 77 S. C. 50, 57 S. E. 638, 639, involved an appeal in a case tried in the Mayor’s Court of the City of Greenville. In that case, after a number of questions were asked on a particular point, upon objection, the trial court stopped further cross examination, which action was affirmed by the Supreme Court. This court, after stating the general rule, said:
“A different question would be presented if there had been any substantial or prejudicial interference with the right of cross examination.”
In the case of Bunch v. Charleston & W. C. R. R. Co., 91 S. C. 139, 74 S. E. 363, this Court said: “While it is true that the scope of the cross examination is largely in the discretion of the trial judge, still, when the question is as to the relevancy of the evidence, or whether it is in reply or no, it becomes a matter of law upon which this court ought to pass.”
In the case of Charping v. Toxaway Mills, 70 S. C. 470, 50 S. E. 186, a witness testified that a piece of timber was too small to bear a certain weight and the court held that it was clearly proper to allow the adverse party to contradict this testimony by proof that the witness afterwards used timber the same size to bear the same weight at another place and time, against the contention that such evidence involved a collateral and irrelevant matter.
Peay v. Durham Life Insurance Co., 185 S. C. 78, 193 S. E. 199, is more nearly in point with the facts here than any South Carolina case which I have discovered. That case was a suit arising out of an insurance policy, and the plain*594tiff was apparently confused in regard to the name of the agent of the company who allegedly refused to take the premiums on the policy and who told her the policy was canceled. On cross examination, counsel for the insurance company sought to cross examine the plaintiff in relation to the policies which she held with other companies, one of which had offices in the same building with and adjacent to the offices of the defendant; a matter which went directly to the credibility of the witness as to whether she had confused the agents of other insurance companies with the agents of the defendant. He was denied this opportunity and the lower court was reversed, this court saying: “It is true that the trial judge is vested with large discretion in the matter of competency, pertinency, and admissibility of testimony, but it is equally true that if, in the exercise of discretion, he infringes upon a legal right of a party to the trial, this court will review his action.
“We think such a situation is here disclosed, and that the ruling of the trial court was erroneous/’
In my view, the case of State v. Maxey, 218 S. C. 106, 62 S. E. (2d) 100 (cited in the majority opinion), is not at all in conflict with the foregoing authorities and is simply not in point on the question under discussion. That case states and applies the broad rule as to the discretion of the trial judge with respect to the general range and extent of cross examination. The alleged error, however, was that the trial court had allowed too much latitude in cross examination, and not deprivation of the right of cross examination as is the case here.
The study of many cases, both civil and criminal, wherein the broad general rule as to discretion of the trial judge is actually applied, and not merely stated, shows that in most of them the issue was either: (1) whether or not the trial judge had allowed too much latitude, just as in the cited case, or: (2) whether the trial judge correctly exercised his discretion in determining that a particular topic of *595cross examination had been sufficiently exhausted. Research on my part has disclosed no case in this or any other jurisdiction which has actually applied the broad rule where the trial judge cut off in limine cross examination on a point that was either properly in reply to testimony adduced by the opposition or went directly to the veracity of the witness being cross examined.
The clear weight of authority is to the effect that if the attempted cross examination is either properly in reply or goes to the veracity of the witness, the trial judge has no right or discretion to cut off such cross examination in limine and when he does so, it is prejudicial error.
In my humble opinion neither the case of Dunlap v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 235 S. C. 206, 110 S. E. (2d) 856, nor the Missouri case of Wiener v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of New York, 352 Mo. 673, 179 S. W. (2d) 39, is here in point, both of them being readily distinguishable.
In the Dunlap case the plaintiff was a dentist by profession and the defendant insurance company sought by way of pretrial examination to elicit information as to plaintiff’s investment income, a matter totally irrelevant to any issue raised by the pleadings. His investment income was in no way connected with his ability or disability. The plaintiff in that case did not seek, as did the plaintiff here, to bolster his credibility as to his disability by giving a distorted picture of his income status, and, moreover, no question of his credibility could arise until he took the stand and testified. Attempting to obtain information in advance of the trial as to an issue not made relevant by the pleadings is a far cry from asking questions in cross examination which are in direct reply to an issue raised by the plaintiff and which go directly to the credibility of the plaintiff as a witness.
In the Wiener case the plaintiff was a doctor and the opinion shows that his disability within the terms of the policy did not rest largely upon his own testimony, as in the instant case, but that he had been examined by a number of *596physicians and every one had advised him not to go back to practice because of the organic disease of his heart, which advice the doctor followed. The court did hold that under the facts of that particular case it was prejudicial error to allow the defendant company to bring out on cross examination of the doctor that he was receiving disability payments from other insurance companies, amounting to thirteen thousand seven hundred fifty dollars a year. The court, however, recognized that its ruling was not one of general application and that it was, in fact, restricted to the facts of the particular case. The decision reversed the lower court on several other grounds in addition to the ground mentioned, but on the particular point, inter alia, said the following :
“In Jennings v. United States, 5 Cir., 73 F. (2d) 470, there is the statement that a defendant may bring out the motives why a claimant of disability benefits has not worked, for example — whether the failure to work was due to inability or the lack of a felt necessity. We do not regard this as a rule of general application because ‘each case presents its own setting, and no general rule (as to the admissibility of such evidence) can be laid down in advance.’ Rose v. United States, 10 Cir., 70 F. (2d) 68, 69. Its admissibility ‘depends upon the fact issues and the situation developed by the evidence of such particular case.’ Cockrell v. United States, 8 Cir., 74 F. (2d) 151, 154. This is so because ‘evidence of insured’s wealth or his poverty, his income or his expenses, as such, is ordinarily of no materiality and may in some cases cause sympathy or prejudice to influence the verdict.’ United States v. Dudley, 9 Cir., 64 F. (2d) 743, 745. In the latter case the court found such evidence nonprejudicial because it was invited. The same was true in the Jennings case and in Prevette v. United States, 4 Cir., 68 F. (2d) 112, and Morrow v. United States, 7 Cir., 101 F. (2d) 654.”
Here, just as in the cases last cited by the Missouri court, the evidence sought to be brought out by the appellant was *597invited by the testimony of the respondent himself. He clearly sought to bolster his credibility and appeal to the sympathy of the jury. No other purpose for offering such testimony on the part of the respondent here is readily apparent. In brief, I do not believe that the Wiener case is authority for the decision reached by the majority here. A reading of that opinion rather leads me to the conclusion that the Missouri court would arrive at a different conclusion if confronted with the factual situation here involved.