Court Opinion

ID: 9825154
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 12:11:32.696601+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:28.033060
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
Appellee’s counsel in his brief in support of his application for rehearing asserts that we ignored the testimony of two of plaintiff’s witnesses, James Hinton and W. A. Nuchols in our statement of the facts in this case.
Mr. Hinton, who was familiar with plaintiff’s-land testified that the wooded portion before the fire “was pretty thick” with small gum and pine trees, and that after the fire the trees were very badly burned, and a majority of them were dead; that the pasture land was burned off clean; and that all of the fence posts that witness “went by” were burned, and some of the wire was on the ground.
There is a complete absence of any testimony by this witness as to the value of the damages sustained by the plaintiff, other than, the generalizations above set forth, which upon consideration are patently without real probative content as to the actual amount of damages suffered by the plaintiff because of the fire.
The witness Nu-cho-ls testified that at James Hinton’s request he, in the latter part of August or the first -part of September, went to see Hinton’s land with the *356expectation of buying it. Other evidence shows that the fire had occurred the previous February. He went by plaintiff’s house and plaintiff went with this witness. The plaintiff did not attempt to show this witness his land. The witness and plaintiff went over land beyond plaintiff’s house “toward the railroad,” and they might have walked over some of plaintiff’s land, but of this the witness was uncertain, as he did not know the directions they walked since he was a Mississippian, and was “turned around in this part of the country.”
The land that this witness did see on this occasion “was plumb burned up,” though he did not remember whether any fence posts were burned or not.
Again there also was no testimony by this witness as to the amount of damages suffered by the plaintiff. Indeed, in view of witness’ own protestations as to complete lack of knowledge as to the location of plaintiff’s land he was not qualified to give such testimony.
In so far as the issues of this case are concerned the testimony of Nuchols is utterly lacking in probative force.
Appellee’s counsel further complains that distortion results from our statement of defendant’s evidence in that we did not set out the testimony produced by the cross examination of defendant’s witnesses. So far as we can see the testimony of these witnesses on direct examination was in nowise materially weakened or altered by their cross examination, and a fair summary of the tendency of their testimony was correctly set forth by us.
Application denied.