Court Opinion

ID: 9654123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:07:07.126793+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:06.175958
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
Appellant has filed a motion for rehearing in which he directs our attention to our failure to consider appellee’s cross-points that the trial court erred in admitting over its objection the testimony of appellant that in his opinion the feeding of the chunkets caused the damage to his cattle, and that the court erred in excluding proof offered by appellee that appellant had been indicted for and had pleaded guilty to charges of running a public gambling house; and appellant says that under Rule 324, T.R.C.P., it is our duty on this appeal to consider those cross-points, and he asks that both be overruled. We agree that we should pass on them.
We think it was error to permit appellant to testify that in his opinion the cause of the disease and death of his cattle was “these Bewley chunkets I fed.” That was the very issue to be decided by the jury. It is believed that under the situation presented by this record, only a medical expert could testify to such opinion. Appellant did not qualify as an expert on the effect upon cattle of trichlo-roethylene in their feed. He did not profess to know anything about it. He relied upon circumstances to prove that the chemical was in the feed consumed by his cattle, and offered experts in veterinary medicine to give their opinions as to the effect of such chemical in cattle feed, as well as their opinion as to the cause of the damage to appellant’s cattle. We are aware of authorities holding that experienced cattlemen may give their opinions as to factors involved in bringing about deteriorating conditions of cattle, when *642it appears that they are better qualified than the average juror on the subject under investigation; but we are not able to agree that a cattleman, however experienced in raising and feeding cattle, may give his opinion on a matter requiring scientific knowledge, and where he does not profess to have such knowledge. It amounts to permitting appellant to say, in effect, that he had examined the findings of the chemist and the medical experts, and they were correct.
The issue as to what caused the disease and death of the cattle was very close. Appellee says — and there were circumstances to support the assertion — that the evidence practically, if not completely, excluded trichloroethylene as the cause, and the finding that the feed contained that chemical could be arrived at only by surmise and conjecture. While we have held that the evidence amounts to more than that, we are persuaded that the testimony complained of could be peculiarly hurtful in the situation presented here. In the opinion of a majority of the court, the error in admitting it was calculated to and probably did turn the scales and cause the jury to find against appellee on that crucial point.
Appellee told the trial court that it was not offering proof of appellant’s indictment for and pleas of guilty to the charges of running a public gambling house, “for the purpose of impeaching the character of the Plaintiff,” but “solely and only for the purpose of contradicting the sworn testimony of the plaintiff” to the effect “that he had never been a professional gambler in his life and that he had never made any part of his living from gambling and that he did not even know how to play cards and shoot dice.” Ap-pellee’s argument is that appellant “was presented as being a man who had been in the cattle business all of his life and that this was his sole and only business. Certainly, the effect of this opinion (as to the cause of his cattle’s damage), erroneously allowed in the first place, would have been materially destroyed if defendant had been allowed to show that this was not his sole and only business.” We are impressed with this argument; but appellant was not charged with gambling, and he admitted that gambling had been going on at a public place which he owned and controlled. We do not think the exclusion of this evidence constituted reversible error.
We think the error discussed requires a new trial under Rule 324, as construed in De Winne v. Allen, Tex., 277 S.W.2d 95, and in Happ v. Happ, Tex.Civ.App., 160 S.W.2d 227. Accordingly, that part of our original judgment instructing the trial court to enter a judgment on the verdict is withdrawn, and the cause is remanded for a new trial.