Robinson v. New York Elevated R. Co.
Decision Date | 02 June 1903 |
Citation | 67 N.E. 431,175 N.Y. 219 |
Parties | ROBINSON et al. v. NEW YORK ELEVATED R. CO. et al. |
Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
Action by Frederick S. Robinson, trustee of Mary E. Nelson, and others, against the New York Elevated Railroad Company and others. From a judgment of the Appellate Division (77 N. Y. Supp. 1139) affirming a judgment for plaintiff, certain defendants appeal. Reversed.
Julien T. Davies, Alfred A. Wheat, and Charles A. Gardiner, for appellants.
Henry A. Forster and John A. Weeks, for respondents Robinson and others.
Lawrence E. Brown and Edward F. Brown, for respondent Nelson.
This is the usual elevated railroad case, to recover fee and rental damages, and, under the unanimous decision, the defendant railway companies are confined to the argument of legal errors duly raised by exceptions.
The counsel for the appellants insists that the learned trial judge admitted, over objection and exception, evidence regarding sales and rentals of specific pieces of property on Pearl street, other than the premises in suit, in violation of the rule laid down by this court in the case of Jamieson v. Kings County Elevated Railway Co., 147 N. Y. 322, 325,41 N. E. 693. Judge Finch there said: The rule laid down was followed in Witmark v. New York Elevated R. Co., 149 N. Y. 393, 44 N. E. 78, and other cases.
The course of procedure under this rule may be thus briefly stated: Plaintiff, having called as a witness an expert, is permitted to show the general course and current of values in the immediate vicinity, leaving to a cross-examination any inquiry into specific instances, if such be deemed essential; the reason for the rule being that to permit evidence of the rental or fee value of other premises would raise in each case a collateral issue to be tried. When the plaintiff's expert witness is cross-examined by the defendant as to specific instances, it is competent, upon a redirect examination, for the plaintiff to make such full inquiry as he may be advised as to each one of the specific instances brought out on cross examination. In the case at bar the plaintiffs swore their expert and conducted the direct examination in compliance with the rule. On cross-examination the defendants made inquiry as to about 12 pieces of other property in the immediate neighborhood. On redirect examination the plaintiffs examined the witness, over the objection and exception of the defendants, in regard to the fee or rental value of some 16 additional pieces of property in the vicinity of the premises in suit. We are of opinion that the introduction of evidence by the plaintiffs in regard to these additional pieces of property in the immediate neighborhood was in direct violation of the rule we have discussed. It was for the plaintiffs to prove the general course of values, and for the defendants to give evidence of specific instances. If it be true that such evidence on the part of the defendants opened the door, as the respondents' counsel claims, for the introduction of as many additional pieces of property as they saw fit, it would result in raising numerous collateral issues, and lead to the utter subversion of the rule laid down in the Jamieson Case.
The counsel for the plaintiffs insists that, admitting, for argument's sake, the mode of conducting the redirect examination discloses legal error, the manner in which the trial judge treated this evidence when considering the case cured whatever error was committed. The trial judge states in his opinion: ...
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