Court Opinion

ID: 9711063
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:23:51.463729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:01.993080
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. I am at a complete loss to understand the majority’s treatment of appellant’s claim that the trial court erred in refusing to allow a defense witness to testify whether appellant was intoxicated prior to the killing.
The majority concedes that a lay witness may be qualified to express an opinion on another’s intoxication. The majority, however, upholds the trial court’s refusal to allow the opinion in this case on the ground that the witness was “equivocal” when he testified to the facts upon which he *319was prepared to give his opinion. There was nothing equivocal about the facts to which the witness testified. Equivocal means indeterminate, ambiguous, inconclusive, ambivalent, obscure and other things all indicating fuzziness. In this case there was nothing equivocal about the witness’s testimony concerning his observation of the appellant.
The witness spoke with appellant shortly before the incident, observed his demeanor, took note of his slightly slurred speech, observed his unsteady movements, and made other pertinent observations on appellant’s condition shortly prior to the shooting. If this lay witness was not qualified to give an opinion on whether or not appellant was intoxicated or not, I do not know who would be.
The majority opinion turns its back on well-settled law in probably all American jurisdictions that only a minimal foundation of underlying facts need be presented before a witness is allowed to give an opinion when the opinion concerns the corporal appearances of persons or things. Wigmore points out that a witness should not be prohibited from giving a “compendious description” when the corporal appearances of persons or things are at issue. He specifically refers to opinions concerning a person who looks ill, sad, old, or intoxicated. In speaking of courts that prohibit compendious descriptions of corporal appearances, including intoxication, Wigmore states:
“The exclusionary rulings here abound particularly in absurdities and quibbles — highly fit for cynical amusement, were not the names of Justice and Truth involved in their consideration. One may wonder how long these solemn farces will be perpetrated in our law.” 7 Wig-more, Evidence § 1974 (1978).
In Section 1975 of Volume 7, Wigmore concludes his discussion by observing that:
“[Tjhere often appears a special perversity in requiring the minutest analysis of the observer’s data instead of accepting his net conclusions.”
We have found no case in Pennsylvania which has not followed the Wigmore view. In fact, Commonwealth v. *320Eyler, 217 Pa. 512, 66 A. 746 (1907), cited by the majority, stands for the exact proposition which the majority overrules. See also Commonwealth v. Boyd, 246 Pa. 529, 92 A. 705 (1914).
There are certain opinions which are almost factual in nature and involve the type of opinion which the layman automatically formulates accurately even though articulation of the underlying descriptive facts is difficult. In these areas the law has consistently permitted the compendious description. The witness in this case was able to give specific underlying descriptive facts. Even without such specificity, an opinion as to intoxication should be permitted. Commonwealth v. Eyler, 217 Pa. 512, 66 A. 746 (1907); Commonwealth v. Boyd, 246 Pa. 529, 92 A. 705 (1914); 7 Wigmore, Evidence §§ 1974-75 (1978). The validity of the intoxication opinion can, of course, be challenged through cross-examination concerning the underlying fact upon which the opinion is based. The trial court’s refusal in this case to allow the witness to give an intoxication opinion, and this Court’s affirmance of that refusal, demonstrate the absurdity of which Professor Wigmore speaks.
I must also dissent from the majority’s conclusion that appellant is foreclosed from assigning as error the trial court’s noncompliance with Rule 1923 in its attempt to supply the missing portions of the transcript. The majority so holds because the Rule was in effect for six weeks at the time of the hearing and appellant did not specifically object on the ground that the trial court’s procedure violated the Rule. This is absurd. Appellant objected generally and moved for a mistrial. Our Rules of Appellate Procedure are directives to the bench as well as the bar. The trial court made absolutely no effort to determine whether its proposal for supplying the missing transcript complied with the Rule; it simply overruled appellant’s objection and proceeded with its proposed procedure. Yet the majority holds that appellant cannot now complain of the trial court’s noncompliance.
In my view, appellant's general objection was sufficient to alert the trial court to inquire further into whether its *321proposed procedure comported with Rule 1923. The procedure clearly did not comport with the Rule and appellant was denied due process of law when his objection to the trial court’s procedure was overruled.
A general objection is always valid and effective, except when considering the admissibility of evidence that is admissible for a reason not specifically objected to by counsel and thus not called to the trial court’s attention. The majority’s reference to counsel’s objection is completely without legal significance.