Hillin v. Hagler, 15675
| Decision Date | 13 January 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 15675,15675 |
| Citation | 286 S.W.2d 661 |
| Parties | Don HILLIN et al., Appellants, v. James Howard HAGLER et ux., Appellees. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
H. J. Loe, Fort Worth, for appellants.
Oscar M. Herring, Fort Worth, for appellees.
Hagler and wife, purchasers of a newly constructed residence, sued the builders and their subcontractors in connection with the roof of the residence, alleging that the roof was faulty and defective and as the result thereof rain water entered the interior of the building and accumulated therein and in storage compartments thereof, ruining curtains, clothing and personal effects, fishing tackle and equipment, and a living room rug. The amount of $465 was alleged as the reasonable cost of another roof in replacement of the defective roof, $150 alleged as the damage to clothing and curtains, $71 alleged as damage to fishing tackle and equipment, and $100 alleged as the damage to the rug. A total of $786 in damages was prayed for.
The issue was joined, a trial had, and, by its answers to special issues submitted, the jury found $500 as roof damage, $150 as clothing and curtain damage, $5 as fishing tackle, etc., damage, and $250 as rug damage. The plaintiffs remitted $35 on account of this amount as excess above their pleadings upon the matter of roof damage, and further remitted $150 for like reason as to the jury's answer to the inquiry upon damage to the rug, the total remittitur being $185. The court entered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in the amount of $720.
The defendants appealed.
Appellants complain because the appellees were permitted to testify to the value of their equipment, clothing and personal effects damaged or destroyed due to the water. The point is overruled. It has long been recognized that the owner of such property will be permitted to testify to his opinion of its value though he may be unable to qualify himself as such a witness to like property belonging to another. It is left for the defendant, against whom a judgment for damages is sought, to attack the testimony by cross-examination of the owner, or to rebut it through the testimony of witnesses. 19 Tex.Jur., p. 274, 'Expert and Opinion Evidence', sec. 117, 'Qualification of Witnesses-Factual Basis'.
Appellants further complain because the court refused to permit one of their witnesses to testify in certain respects upon the matter of the amount of rain which fell during the period in which the appellees' damages were accruing. The appellees' evidence had been to the effect that so much rain leaked into their garage during the month of January, 1954 that the boat stored therein was half-filled. The appellants desired to show that rainfall was so sparse during the period that even had appellees' entire roof been a container to hold water rather than shed it, and even had the rain water which fell been trapped therein and poured thence into the boat the boat would have only been approximately one-tenth filled. It appears that the witness had his figures on the roof and on the boat. He had gone to the nearest official station of the United States Weather Bureau and ascertained from its records that the rainfall measured at the station during the period in question was .37 inches. The intention was that the witness would use the amount of rainfall represented by the official records as the missing ingredient in the equation and by an assumption that the same amount of rain fell on appellees' roof as at the nearest weather station, demonstrate that the leaking water was rather insignificant as compared with appellees' claims. Without consideration of what value the evidence of the exact amount of rainfall at the weather station would have to the case, we are of the opinion that reception of the witness' testimony about matter he had learned from the Weather Bureau would have been improper. The trial court properly excluded it. The court judicially knows that weather records are kept, but does not judicially know what the records reflect. A defendant, against whom this character of evidence is sought to be adduced, is entitled to test the authenticity of the records from which the evidence is to come, and to test the evidence...
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Kestenbaum v. Falstaff Brewing Corp.
...value, however, is subject to attack through cross-examination or independent evidence refuting the owner's estimate (Hillin v. Hagler, 286 S.W.2d 661 (Tex.Civ.App.1956)), with the jury as fact-finder shouldering the responsibility of judging the credibility of the witness, resolving the co......
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Freeman v. Commercial Union Assur. Co.
...dis. (defendant not permitted to show by parol evidence what premium it charged for two classifications of insurance); Hillin v. Hagler, Tex.Civ.App., 286 S.W.2d 661, no wr. hist. (Parol evidence not admissible to prove the amount of rainfall as shown by U. S. Weather Bureau Records); Chamb......
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Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co. v. Allison, 1459
...as to the value of property of others. State v. Berger, 430 S.W.2d 557, 559 (Tex.Civ.App.-Waco 1968, writ ref'd n. r. e.); Hillin v. Hagler, 286 S.W.2d 661, 662 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1956, no It is also the rule in Texas that the opinions of the landowner in condemnation suits are admiss......
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