Court Opinion

ID: 9665658
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:53:59.085042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:01:22.887434
License: Public Domain

EVANS, Justice
(concurring).
I fully concur in the opinion of the majority in all but one particular. In my opinion the trial court, in the exercise of its discretion, could properly have determined the fifty-nine year old obituary notice was admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule. Under the circumstances here present it could have concluded that the statements in this ancient publication were made by the newspaper staff in the line of their official employment and based upon declarations made by members of the decedent’s family; that due to the lapse of so many years, such published statements constituted some of the best evidence obtainable on the issue. See McCormick & Ray, Texas Law of Evidence, Vol. 2, § 1343, p. 186 et seq.; Lange Texas Land Titles, § 891, pp. 412-416; Coffee v. William Marsh Rice University, 408 S.W.2d 269, 284 (Tex.Civ.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1966, writ ref’d n. r. e.).