Evansville & Richmond Railroad Company v. Fettig

• Decision Date: 16 December 1891
• Docket Number: 15,247
• Citation: 29 N.E. 407,130 Ind. 61
• Parties: The Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company v. Fettig
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

29 N.E. 407

130 Ind. 61

The Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company v. Fettig

No. 15,247

Supreme Court of Indiana

December 16, 1891

From the Jackson Circuit Court.

Judgment affirmed.

M. F Dunn and G. G. Dunn, for appellant.

W. K Marshall, for appellee.

OPINION

McBride, J.

The only question argued by counsel for the appellant relates to the action of the trial court in admitting testimony.

The appellant sought to appropriate certain lands belonging to the appellee for the construction of its line of railroad. The assessment of damages being unsatisfactory to the appellee, he filed exceptions, and the cause was tried by the court, a jury being waived.

On the trial the appellee called several witnesses to testify to the value of the land before and after the construction of the railroad, and they were each allowed to testify over the objection of the appellant. With the exception of the first witness, the record does not show that any specific objection was made to the testimony of any of these witnesses.

With the majority of the witnesses the bill of exceptions simply shows, generally, that the appellant objected, and that, his objection being overruled, he excepted. In other instances it is stated that the objection was because the testimony was "incompetent and improper." Such objections present no question to this court. Objections to evidence, to be available, must be reasonably specific. It is not enough to state that the evidence is incompetent, or that it is "immaterial," or "improper," or "incompetent," but the particular objection must be fairly stated. Ohio, etc., R. W. Co. v. Walker, 113 Ind. 196, 15 N.E. 234; Farman v. Lauman, 73 Ind. 568; Nave v. Flack, 90 Ind. 205; Louisville, etc., R. W. Co. v. Jones, 108 Ind. 551, 9 N.E. 476, and many other cases.

The testimony of all these witnesses was, however, substantially alike. The first witness called was Charles Leninger, who testified that he knew the land, and described its location adjoining the corporation line of the city of Seymour, described its shape, testified that it was cleared and fenced, and that there were no buildings upon it. That it was "good to lay out in town lots," but had never been platted, and that the town was growing that way. He was then asked to state how much the land was worth per acre before the road was constructed. To this question the appellant at the time objected, for the reason "that it called for a mere...