Bunch v. Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n
| Decision Date | 14 February 1948 |
| Docket Number | No. 6327.,6327. |
| Citation | 209 S.W.2d 657 |
| Parties | BUNCH v. TEXAS EMPLOYERS' INS. ASS'N. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Lamar County; A. S. Broadfoot, Judge.
Suit under Workmen's Compensation Act by John W. Bunch to set aside an award of the Industrial Accident Board in favor of Texas Employers' Insurance Association. From a judgment denying relief, plaintiff appeals.
Judgment reversed, and case remanded for new trial.
Homer C. Ellis and B. Ray Smith, both of Paris, for appellant.
O. B. Fisher, of Paris, for appellee.
John W. Bunch brought suit in the District Court of Lamar County, Texas, against Texas Employers' Insurance Association under the terms of the Workmen's Compensation Act, Articles 8306-8309a, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St., to recover for disabilities which he alleged he received in the course of his employment with the Box Factory of Paris. The case was tried to a jury and upon their answer in the negative to Issue No. 1, which inquired as to whether or not plaintiff sustained an accidental injury on or about the 26th day of July, 1946, as was alleged in his petition, the court entered judgment for the defendant. None of the other issues submitted by the court were answered by the jury.
While the plaintiff was on the stand as a witness in his own behalf, on cross-examination he was asked if he had been charged with the offense of stealing hogs. He answered that about fourteen years prior to that time he had been charged with hog theft and assessed a four-year suspended sentence therefor. An exception was taken by his attorney to the admission of this testimony for the reason, among other things, that it was too remote. In the absence of the question of its being too remote, the testimony elicited on cross-examination unquestionably was admissible for impeachment purposes. With reference to remoteness, primarily the determination of that question is within the sound discretion of the trial judge and no abuse of such discretion being shown, his ruling as to whether or not a former conviction of a felony is admissible will not be disturbed on appeal. There are few cases, if any, in this state which hold that evidence of a conviction fourteen years or more in the past is admissible for the purpose of impeaching a witness in the absence of some facts or circumstances which would render such evidence admissible. Most of the cases that deal with this point are to the effect that a conviction for a felony twelve or fourteen years in the past is too remote, and those convictions that have been held to be admissible are from eight to ten years and down. In the absence of subsequent convictions for theft, or other circumstances that might render the testimony in question admissible, we are of the opinion that this particular conviction fourteen years prior to the trial of this suit was too remote in order to be admissible for impeaching purposes. Appellee's theory that the evidence was in rebuttal to appellant's oft-repeated reference to his own honesty in earning a livelihood is untenable in that from the record it appears that he was cross-examined about the hog theft before he referred to his life of honest toil.
The plaintiff was asked further on cross-examination by the defendant's attorney if he had not been guilty of operating a house of prostitution, and of soliciting dates for his wife with other men. The same questions were asked his wife on cross-examination after she had testified in his behalf, and in addition she was asked if she didn't tell a Mr. Lane and Mr. Akard, who were officers at Paris, that her husband had forced her to engage in sexual relations with a soldier, and with other men. These matters were denied by both Bunch and his wife, and then the officers in question were placed on the stand and testified that Mrs. Lillian Bunch had told them that she had been compelled to engage in the acts in question by her husband. Bunch and his wife each testified that they had been arrested and pleaded guilty to the charge of vagrancy in the justice court at Paris, and Bunch's attorney in rebuttal to the testimony of the officers introduced complaints...
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