Court Opinion

ID: 9557647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:53:59.04369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:07.974484
License: Public Domain

Horowitz, C.J.
(concurring specially) — I concur in the affirmance of the judgment below for the reasons stated in the majority opinion with one exception. In upholding the judgment, the opinion relies on a rule of witness disqualification whose soundness is at least open to question notwithstanding that there is an alternate rationale available upholding the trial court’s rejection of the offered testimony here assigned as error.
The majority construes RCW 5.60.060(1) as impliedly forbidding an ex-wife from testifying to circumstances which show the nonconfidential character of a communication made to her during marriage by her then husband, which evidence if received would render admissible her testimony as to the communication made. No Washington case construing the statute prohibits her from so testifying. In other jurisdictions, such testimony would be admissible. Their courts permit a spouse to testify to the presence of a third person during the making of a communication from one spouse to the other and, accordingly, hold admissible the communication so made. It is not necessary that proof of the presence of the third person come only from that third person.1 Furthermore, no requirement has been im*761posed that to be admissible her testimony must be corroborated.2
It is said that we should not adopt a contrary view because it would impair the freedom of either spouse to communicate with the other. The impairment, it is argued, results from the fact that an ex-spouse, out of motives of jealousy or vengeance, may seek ways and means, even though improper, to disclose communications embarrassing to the communicating spouse. The reasoning described is reminiscent of the rationale, now practically obsolete, advanced to justify the disqualification of parties and interested persons from testifying in their own behalf. RCW 5.60.030; 2 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 575 at 674 (3d ed. 1940).
The Supreme Court had an opportunity to adopt the rationale discussed by following the literal language of RCW 5.60.060 (1) prohibiting an ex-spouse from testifying to “any communication made by one to the other during marriage.” See, for example, Leppla v. Minnesota Tribune Co., 35 Minn. 310, 29 N.W. 127 (1886); Cook v. Grange, 18 Ohio 526, 531 (1849). See generally 8 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2336 (J. McNaughton rev. ed. 1961). Nevertheless, the court, in conformity with the common-law rule, held that “any communication” means only any confidential communication. State v. Americk, 42 Wn.2d 504, 256 P.2d 278 (1953); State v. Snyder, 84 Wash. 485, 147 P. 38 (1915); *762Sackman v. Thomas, 24 Wash. 660, 64 P. 819 (1901). A like rule was adopted with respect to the statutory language “any communication” as between attorney and client. RCW 5.60.060(2). State v. Emmanuel, 42 Wn.2d 799, 259 P.2d 845 (1953); In re Estate of Quick, 161 Wash. 537, 297 P. 198 (1931). Accordingly, an attorney who testified to the presence of a third person when 'his client made a communication to the attorney was permitted to testify to the communication so made. Ramsey v. Mading, 36 Wn.2d 303, 217 P.2d 1041 (1950). Nor did the Supreme Court avail itself of an opportunity to prevent the impairment of the marital testimonial privilege when, applying the common-law rule, it held that an eavesdropper could testify to the communication. State v. Barnhart, 73 Wn.2d 936, 442 P.2d 959 (1968); State v. Thorne, 43 Wn.2d 47, 260 P.2d 331 (1953); State v. Slater, 36 Wn.2d 357, 218 P.2d 329 (1950).
In the search for the facts, we should be slow to impose an additional restriction on the admissibility of evidence when: such a restriction is not required by Washington case law; nor supported by the analogy of the admissibility of evidence in attorney-client relationships; is contrary to decisional law elsewhere; and the rationale now put forward to justify the additional restriction is one the Supreme Court could have used but did not use in holding, in the cases cited, that RCW 5.60.060 should be construed in the common-law sense.
There is another ground, however, which supports the ruling of the trial court excluding the éx-wife’s proffered testimony. Whether an ex-wife’s testimony offered to show the nonconfidential character of a communication is prima facie sufficient to render the testimony admissible is a preliminary question for the trial court. Freeman v. Freeman, 238 Mass. 150, 130 N.E. 220 (1921); Lyon v. Prouty, 154 Mass. 488, 28 N.E. 908 (1891); Nash v. Fidelity-Phenix Fire Ins. Co., 106 W. Va. 672, 146 S.E. 726, 63 A.L.R. 101 (1929). Thus, the ex-wife’s proffered testimony may be inadmissible because too conjectural to show that the communication was made, to the husband’s knowledge, in the presence and *763hearing of the third person. This rule has been applied, for example, when the third person is a child and there is no preliminary showing that the child possesses sufficient intelligence to understand the communication. See Amer Realty Co. v. Spack, 280 Mass. 96, 181 N.E. 753 (1932). In Westerman v. Westerman, 25 Ohio St. 500 (1874), the court stated that “[ejvidence to show the presence of such third person was for the court, and not for the jury”. 25 Ohio St. at 507-08.
Communications between a husband and wife are presumptively confidential. Such a presumption must be overcome “by proof of facts showing that they were not intended to be private.” Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 6, 98 L. Ed. 435, 74 S. Ct. 358 (1954). A trial court, in making a preliminary determination whether proffered evidence is sufficient to overcome the presumption of confidentiality, has a right to consider whether the testimony before him is based merely upon conjecture. The witness testifying to a matter which is in the nature of a conclusion of fact “must not appear to lack adequate data as its basis of inference.” 2 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 659 at 770 (3d ed. 1940). See also 5 R. Meisenholder, Wash. Prac. § 331 (1965); C. McCormick, Evidence '§ 10 (E. Cleary 2d ed. 1972). As McCormick states it at pages 21-22:
[Wjhen a witness uses such expressions as “I think,” “My impression is,” or “In my opinion,” this will be no ground of objection if it appears that he merely speaks from an inattentive observation, or an unsure memory, though it will if the expressions are found to mean that he speaks from conjecture or from hearsay.
The proffered evidence here is in question and answer form. It reads:
Q (By Mr. Anderson) Was there anybody else present when Kurt Breimon has said that he spit tobacco out the window and then had an accident?
A I know there was other people there. I believe his grandfather heard him say it.
Q He’s now dead, is he?
A Yes.
*764The answer “I know there was other people there,” unaccompanied by supporting data, does not necessarily show that the husband was aware of the presence of such people or that they were in such close proximity to the husband as to be within hearing of the communication, much less to have actually heard it.
The ex-wife’s conclusionary testimony “I believe his grandfather heard him say it” was likewise unaccompanied by any statement or evidence of circumstances from which it could be determined objectively whether the grandfather was so positioned that the communication was within his hearing so that he actually heard it. Plaintiff’s brief puts it well:
Mr. Breimon’s grandfather was a man of advanced age and now deceased . . . There is no testimony as to his proximity, attention, wakefulness, hearing capacity, or any other element that would establish a “family” as opposed to a purely inter-spousal conversation in his presence.
The court could have held that the ex-wife’s testimony was inadmissible because based on conjecture.
It is true that the reason given by the trial judge for refusing the offer of proof was unrelated to the conjectural quality of the testimony offered. Nevertheless, if there is a reason supported by the record that enables an appellate court to uphold the trial court’s judgment, the judgment will be affirmed. The appeal is from the judgment, not from the reason given for a ruling assigned as error. State v. Carroll, 81 Wn.2d 95, 500 P.2d 115 (1972).

Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 98 L. Ed. 435, 74 S. Ct. 358 (1954); Picciurro v. United States, 250 F.2d 585 (8th Cir. 1958); People v. Palumbo, 5 Ill. 2d 409, 125 N.E.2d 518 (1955); People v. McNanna, 94 Ill. App. 2d 314, 236 N.E.2d 767 (1968); Linnell v. Linnell, 249 Mass. 51, 143 N.E. 813 (1924); Fay v. Guynon, 131 Mass. 31 (1881); Reed v. Reed, 101 Mo. App. 176, 70 S.W. 505 (1902); People v. Melski, 10 N.Y.2d 78, 176 N.E.2d 81, 217 N.Y.S.2d 65 (1961); Sessions v. Trevitt, 39 Ohio St. 259 (1883); McCague v. Miller, 36 Ohio St. 595 (1881). In Picciurro v. United States, supra, the wife was permitted to testify to a *761conversation between her husband and herself that took place in the presence and hearing of a third party. The court said:
It is, however, argued that the proof of the presence of a third party must be made by testimony other than that of the spouse. The witness could, we think, testify to any fact that made her testimony competent and manifestly testimony may be given by either spouse as to the known presence, hearing or knowledge of the third person.
250 F.2d at 589. The fact that the third person who overheard the communication between the husband and wife is dead at the time of the trial does not change the rule. People v. Ressler, 17 N.Y.2d 174, 216 N.E.2d 582, 269 N.Y.S.2d 414 (1966); Sessions v. Trevitt, supra; Morgan v. Bartlette, 3 Ohio C. Dec. 431 (1888); Rowley v. Rowley, 144 Okla. 157, 290 P. 181 (1930).

E.g., Lyon v. Prouty, 154 Mass. 488, 28 N.E. 908 (1891); Reed v. Reed, 101 Mo. App. 176, 70 S.W. 505 (1902).