Com., ex rel. Meyers v. Stern
| Decision Date | 10 December 1985 |
| Citation | 501 A.2d 1380,509 Pa. 260 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, ex rel. Anne M. MEYERS, Appellee, v. Michael J. STERN, Appellant. 8 E.D. 1985. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
William Lamb, Nancy C.M. Balliet, West Chester, for appellee.
Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, HUTCHINSON, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.
This appeal is from an order of the Superior Court, 328 Pa.Super. 557, 476 A.2d 65, affirming the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County which granted appellee a new trial in a suit to establish the paternity of appellant.
Appellee initiated this action on January 3, 1979, in which she alleged the paternity of appellant with respect to her child. A trial was initially held without appellant due to lack of notice. Appellant's absence warranted the granting of a new trial which was held on November 26-28, 1979, in which a verdict on behalf of appellant was returned. Appellee filed a motion for a new trial on December 4, 1979. An amended motion for new trial was filed on January 5, 1981, alleging, inter alia, the acquisition of new evidence in the form of testimony as to a telephone conversation between appellant and appellee on March 8, 1980, in which appellant allegedly admitted to perjuring himself at trial. It was further alleged that appellant admitted to being the father of the child in question.
A hearing was held on July 14, 1981, with respect to appellee's motion and a new trial was granted on July 6, 1982. Appellant subsequently appealed the new trial order and the Superior Court affirmed on May 4, 1984.
A short history of the controversy at bar will provide insight to the immediate issue of the after-discovered evidence. Appellant and appellee began to see one another regularly during the summer of 1977. At the time, appellant was a resident of Pennsylvania and appellee a resident of New York. Appellee testified that her first moment of intimacy with appellant occurred in Pennsylvania at the end of July, 1977. She further testified that the act leading to the pregnancy at issue transpired between her and appellant in November of 1977, at the home of her friend, Mark Ginsberg. Appellee claims she had no sexual relations with anyone from June of 1976 to July of 1977, and from then on only with appellant until December of 1977. Appellant denied having had sexual relations with appellee during the established period of conception. These allegations and denials were the extent of the evidence presented to the jury, upon which the jury returned a verdict for appellant.
As previously stated, appellee was granted a new trial on account of after-discovered evidence. Appellee and Mr. Ginsberg testified at an evidentiary hearing to a telephone conversation on March 8, 1980, between appellee and appellant. 1 1 Appellee testified that the gravamen of her conversation with appellant went as follows:
He accepted my apology and said that he also was sorry but that he had no choice. Sure, he had lied in court--he had lied in court when he said he hadn't slept with me in November, but he had heard my testimony and he knew he had to cover all of his bases.
He went on to tell me that it didn't matter anyway because he knew he was the father, I knew he was the father, and the jury had known it, too. All they were saying to me was that I should have had an abortion, and all he was trying to explain to me was that a child is not your child because you contribute an egg or a sperm to its development, but a child is a child of parents who are willing to assume responsibilities for the child, and because I was the only one willing to assume any responsibility for her, that I was both the father and mother, and that if I was interested in completing her birth certificate, I should sign it as her father. 2
The trial court found that the preceding testimony coupled with the corroborative statement of Mr. Ginsberg provided a sufficient basis for the grant of a new trial. 3 The Superior Court found that the trial court had not abused its discretion in granting the motion, and thus, affirmed. We disagree with the Superior Court's disposition of this case and therefore reverse.
Our scope of review of the lower court's grant of a new trial on the basis of after-discovered evidence is whether the court committed an abuse of discretion or an error of law which controlled the outcome of the case. Commonwealth v. Cooney, 444 Pa. 416, 419, 282 A.2d 29, 30 (1971). In conducting this review there is a "presumption that the trial court was justified in granting a new trial even when the reason given therefore is an insufficient reason unless the court expressly states that it is the only reason." Bellettiere v. Philadelphia, 367 Pa. 638, 642, 81 A.2d 857, 859 (1951).
In the case at bar the trial court limited its basis for granting a new trial to the after-discovered evidence previously discussed.
... we find that in the interests of justice a new trial should be granted since the proffered testimony meets the requirements of after discovered evidence and since the alleged perjury relates to a material aspect of the case.
Slip op. Chester County No. 21N 1979 at 5. The preceding statement allows this Court, without trespassing on the trial judge's duty to determine facts, to focus its review upon the specific character of the after-discovered evidence. The issue thus becomes whether the after-discovered evidence, in the form of the telephone conversation between appellant and appellee, warranted the granting of a new trial. 4
The law regarding the granting of a new trial based on after-discovered evidence has been firmly established:
In order to justify the grant of a new trial on the basis of after-discovered evidence, the evidence must have been discovered after the trial and must be such that it could not have been obtained at the trial by reasonable diligence, must not be cumulative or merely impeach credibility, and must be such as would likely compel a different result. (Citations omitted.)
In Re Estate of Townsend, 436 Pa. 185, 190, 258 A.2d 518, 520 (1969). See also, Commonwealth v. Scott, 503 Pa. 624, 628, 470 A.2d 91, 93 (1983).
An analysis of the evidence presented by appellee at the evidentiary hearing reveals its only inherent quality is for impeachment purposes. The jury in the original trial based its verdict on the testimony of appellee and appellant. The evidence presented by appellee after trial consists of an alleged recantation by the defense's only witness, the defendant (appellant) himself.
We have frequently held that after-discovered evidence offered only to impeach the credibility of witnesses who testified at...
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