Court Opinion

ID: 9605921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:43:22.779262+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:00.300883
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting.
I concur in Judge Stolz’ dissent as to Division 3 of the majority opinion, and add the following:
Counsel for plaintiff sought to cross examine Harvey J. Fitzgerald, Jr., a witness who testified that he went to the scene of the collision and investigated same, by asking him who sent him to the scene of the accident. *833Defendant’s counsel objected thus: "Well, this is not admissible for the simple reason that the fact of insurance on the part of either party is inadmissible. ” (Tr. p. 46) (Emphasis supplied.) A majority of the members of this court, strangely enough, seem to agree with that contention.
But it is not now and never has been the law of Georgia that the fact of insurance on the part of either party is inadmissible. The rule is far different, said rule being that when insurance is brought out for no other purpose except to prove insurance, it is inadmissible, but if insurance is brought out in connection with other material and admissible evidence, the evidence will not be excluded simply because it also proves insurance.
The interest or want of interest of a witness in a case is always a proper matter to be proven. Code §§ 38-107, 38-1712; Camp v. State, 31 Ga. App. 737, 741 (8) (122 SE 249). And that is what plaintiffs counsel sought to do here, to show the interest of the witness, by showing why he went to the scene of the collision, that is, who sent him. If an insurance company sent him to the scene, he should have been required to answer and give that information to the court.
The correct rule is clearly pronounced in the case of Goldstein v. Johnson, 64 Ga. App. 31, 35 (12 SE2d 92): " 'According to the generally accepted rule, the fact that defendant is insured or otherwise indemnified against loss in the event of a recovery against him can not be shown as an independent fact by plaintiff [citing Bibb Mfg. Co. v. Williams, 36 Ga. App. 605 (137 SE 636); Heinz v. Backus, 34 Ga App. 203 (128 SE 915); Sims v. Martin, 33 Ga. App. 486. (126 SE 872)) although it may be shown where it is brought out as an incident to the proof of some other fact properly involved.’ ...” (Emphasis supplied.) Besides the cases above cited, in Wade v. Drinkard, 76 Ga. App. 159 (5) (45 SE2d 231), it was held proper to allow proof that a party stated at the scene that he had insurance, both as a statement against interest and as a part of the res gestae.
In Shapiro Packing Co. v. Landrum, 109 Ga. App. 519, 521 (136 SE2d 446), this court, speaking through Judge Eberhardt, held: "The generally accepted rule is *834that the fact that a defendant is insured or otherwise indemnified against loss in the event of a recovery against him can not be shown as an independent fact by a plaintiff.” (Emphasis supplied.) And therein is the true answer; if the fact of insurance is a part of other relevant evidence, it is admissible; if it is shown as an independent fact, merely to show insurance, it is inadmissible.
In support of its position, the majority opinion at page 829 cites seven cases, but not a single one of them deals with the question of insurance being introduced in connection with other relevant testimony. I readily concede that it can not be introduced as an independent fact.
In this case, plaintiffs counsel is to be deprived of the valuable and proper right of cross examination of an adverse witness, in that he is not to be allowed to show the interest of the witness. He did not try to show insurance as an independent fact, and he could not be deprived of the right to introduce admissible evidence simply because it contained the magic word "insurance.”