Jones v. State

• Decision Date: 09 December 1954
• Docket Number: No. 15,15
• Citation: 109 A.2d 732,205 Md. 528
• Parties: Hortense JONES v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 528

205 Md. 528

109 A.2d 732

Hortense JONES v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 15.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 9, 1954.

Harry H. Cropper, Salisbury, for appellant.

Ambrose T. Hartman, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Edward D. E. Rollins, Atty. Gen. and Hamilton P. Fox, Jr., State's Atty., Wicomico County, Salisbury, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and HAMMOND, JJ.

HAMMOND, Judge.

The appellant was convicted of abortion. The testimony of the prosecuting witness as to pregnancy--an essential element of the offense, Code 1951, art. 27, § 3--was somewhat vague, and to the State, evidently insufficient. At the first trial of the charge, the jury failed to agree. At the second trial the State sought to prove the pregnancy, as it had in the first, by the records of the Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury where the victim had been treated after the abortion. At the time of her treatment, Dr. I. Rivers Hanson was in charge of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital. He brought with him to court the record of the hospital showing the admission and treatment of the victim, made in the regular course of business. It is conceded that Dr. Hanson never treated or even saw the patient and had no personal knowledge of her condition, as it is, that the record showed that she had been attended by a Dr. Parham, who examined her after her admission on March 13, 1950, and performed an operation on her a few days later. Defense counsel moved to exclude 'any testimony from Dr. Hanson based upon this hospital record for the reason that this hospital record was not made as a result of an examination by this doctor.' After some further questioning by the State's Attorney, which brought out that Dr. Hanson was in charge of the department in March, 1950 and that the records were made under his supervision, the State's Attorney remarked: 'Now we think the records are admissible.' Defense counsel renewed his motion 'on the further ground these records are hearsay.' The motion was overruled. Dr. Hanson was then asked: 'referring to the hospital records which you have, tell * * * the jury, * * * just what they reveal in regard to the patient Anna Mae Moore Camper?' Defense counsel stated that he would like the record to show 'that the defense objects to the use of the hospital records in this case, generally, by this witness.'

At this point the witness asked: 'Shall I use the records or not? I can testify with or without them, whatever you want.' The State's Attorney replied: 'If you can testify without them, we prefer that.' The court stated: 'As we understand, the records are only used for the purpose of refreshing his recollection.' The witness then testified, entirely without reference to the record, in response to the State's Attorney's question: 'Tell the jury what you can about this patient's admittance and treatment?'

The hospital record was never offered in evidence. It was not before the jury, is not in the transcript here. When he took the stand, Dr. Hanson did not read the record to the jury. He did not purport even to summarize it. If the hospital record had been offered in evidence, it should have been admitted. The appellant's claim to the contrary has no merit. In several recent cases we have held that hospital records are admissible under the statute, Code 1951, art. 35, § 68, which expressly declares that '* * * lack of personal knowledge by the entrant or maker, may be shown to affect the weight, but not the admissibility thereof.' Shirks Motor Express v. Oxenham, 204 Md. 626, 635, 106 A.2d 46; Lee v. Housing Authority of Baltimore, 203 Md. 453, 459, 101 A.2d 832; Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard v. Scherpenisse, 187 Md. 375, 380, 50 A.2d 256. These cases dealt with statements of occurrences prior to admission, made to the hospital authorities by the patient or other persons and entered in the case history. We held that they were admissible, if pathologically germane to the case, despite their hearsay character. Cf. Weis v. Weis, 147 Ohio St. 416, 72 N.E.2d 245, 249, 169 A.L.R. 668; Watts v. Delaware Coach Co., 5 Terry 283, 44 Del. 283, 58 A.2d 689, and Commonwealth v. Harris, 351 Pa. 325, 41 A.2d 688. They go far beyond the statements of medical findings in the instant case.

The appellant relies strongly upon the case of Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. Zapf, 192 Md. 403, 64 A.2d 139, 6 A.L.R.2d 400, but we think the case is distinguishable. There, an X-ray report made by a radiographer to whom a patient had been referred by an attending physician, was said to be inadmissible when offered in evidence by the attending physician to whom it had been transmitted. But it was pointed out that the witness had not examined the plates and was not competent to express an opinion thereon, and that the report was not a hospital record but a private letter in the nature of an opinion. The exact holding was that the admission of the report was not reversible error, because the full contents of the report had been previously brought out before the jury, without objection.

We find no substance in the appellant's contention that the statute is not applicable to criminal, as distinguished from civil cases, and if so construed, would be unconstitutional under that portion of Article 21 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights providing: 'That in all criminal prosecutions, every man hath a right * * * to be confronted with the witnesses against him * * *.' We find nothing in the statute to support such a limitation, and it has been assumed, if not decided, that it is applicable in criminal prosecutions. O'Donnell v. State, 188 Md. 693, 53 A.2d 688, 54 A.2d 315; Morrow v. State, 190 Md. 559, 59 A.2d 325. See also People v. King, 104 Cal.App.2d 298, 231 P.2d 156. In Johns v. State, 55 Md. 350, 359, it was held that the right of confrontation does not apply to documentary evidence, and that the legislature has the constitutional power to change the common law rules of evidence as to what documents are admissible and the weight to be attributed to them, even in criminal cases. This is the view taken in other states where the question has been raised. State v. Hayes, 127 Conn. 543, 18 A.2d 895; People v. Nisonoff, 293 N.Y. 597, 59 N.E.2d 420; People v. Purcell, 22 Cal.App.2d 126, 70 P.2d 706; State v. Guaraneri, 59 R.I. 173, 194 A. 589; Cochran v. Commonwealth, 122 Va. 801, 94 S.E. 329. In Snyder v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 291 U.S. 97, 107, 54 S.Ct. 330, 333, 78 L.Ed. 674, Mr. Justice Cardozo said: 'Nor has the privilege of confrontation at any time been without recognized exceptions, as, for instance, dying declarations or documentary evidence. * * * The exceptions are not even static, but may be enlarged from time to time if there is no material departure from the reason of the general rule.' We think the Johns case is controlling on the point.

The real question in the case is the effect of the admission of Dr. Hanson's testimony. As has been said, he did not read or summarize the record. He did not testify as, nor was he offered as, an expert, who testified on the assumption that the statements and facts in the record were true. Rather, he testified over objection, as the doctor in charge of the patient, as if from personal knowledge, that the examination '* * * revealed a recent pregnancy which had been aborted * * *.' He said that the patient suffered from fever and other signs of infection, that 'we were able to ascertain by examination.' He answered, as if he himself knew as a fact, questions asked by the State's Attorney, such as: 'What was your testimony * * *?' and 'If you know.' (Emphasis added.) The record served merely as an excuse for Dr. Hanson to testify as if he were an attending physician. The State's Attorney asked him to testify without it. The court said he could use it to refresh his recollection, as if it were his own notes. Can it be doubted seriously that the impact on the jury of the recital of facts and the giving of opinion by a doctor who testified as if he knew personally whereof he spoke, would be far greater than the cold words of a printed and typed record, the infirmities of which are recognized by the very statute which makes it admissible?

We are told that the judgment should be affirmed for two reasons. The first is that the appellant did not object on the ground that the record was not formally in evidence, but objected to any testimony from the witness based on the record. The second is that the appellant cannot justly claim prejudice because of testimony without reference to the record following his statement that he could so testify, the State's Attorney's urging that he do so, and the Judge's remarks as to the refreshing of his recollection, because again, there was no objection or motion to strike on this ground. Support is sought for a finding of lack of prejudice in the mention of the witness, on direct examination, that Dr. Parham had examined the patient and his admission, on cross-examination, that he himself had not, and that the findings were those of Dr. Parham and a pathologist, Dr. McCullough.

We think that to weave a waiver from these few and thin strands plucked from the whole fabric of the proceedings, is not compatible with the appellant's consistent effort to keep the inadmissible testimony out, with a ruling by the court on the point, and the prior decisions of this Court. The cloak of presumed innocence which an accused wears as he comes into the courtroom may be stripped from him only by evidence which the established rules of the law allow to be considered against him. Of course, he, or his counsel for him, may waive the right to keep out inadmissible testimony, and if this is done, the evidence which comes in has the same probative force as if it were competent. Martin v. State, 203 Md. 66, 98 A.2d 8. Again, 'If inadmissible evidence is admitted over objection and the same evidence is later...