Mucci v. LeMonte
Mucci v. LeMonte
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff sought damages for personal injuries which resulted from a collision between an automobile owned by .her and operated by her husband and an automobile owned and operated by the defendant. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant on the complaint and found the issues
During the trial, Daniel Driscoll, a police officer, testified that he and Daniel Murtha, another officer, arrived at the scene of the accident before the vehicles had been moved. Driscoll directed traffic while Murtha investigated the accident. Murtha made out and signed the police report of the accident ; he was, however, unavailable to testify because he had died before the trial. Driscoll had the police report with him at the trial, and he stated that it was made in the regular course of police work and that it was in the ordinary course of police business to make such records. Thereupon, the defendant offered the report as a business entry of the Norwich police department pursuant to § 52-180 of the General Statutes.
Although she conceded that the report was a business entry, the plaintiff objected to its admission on the ground that the defendant did not show the source of Murtha’s information which formed the basis for the report. The court overruled the plaintiff’s objection and admitted the entire police report as a business record of the police department. Immediately thereafter, the plaintiff objected to a portion of the report, stating that it was her only objection and that she had no objection to the rest of the report. Thereupon, the court deleted the portion to which the plaintiff specifically objected.
The police report contained items which were based on Murtha’s own personal observation, such as the condition of the weather and the road surface, the time of day and the location of the vehicles
The trial coart did not commit error by overraling the plaintiff’s objection and admitting the police report into evidence. A police report may be admitted as a basiness entry once the coart finds that the reqairements of General Statates § 52-180 have been satisfied. Szela v. Johnson Motor Lines, Inc., 145 Conn. 714, 723, 146 A.2d 910. The fact, however, that a report is generally admissible ander § 52-180 does not reqaire that everything contained in the report be admitted into evidence. General Motors Acceptance Corporation v. Capitol Garage, Inc., 154 Conn. 593, 597, 227 A.2d 548; Maggi v. Mendillo, 147 Conn. 663, 667, 165 A.2d 603. For an item contained in a report to be admissible, it mast be based on the entrant’s own observation or on information of others whose basiness daty it was to transmit it to the entrant. D’Amato v. Johnston, 140 Conn. 54, 59, 97 A.2d 893. Moreover, a police officer’s conclasion aboat the caase of or responsibility for an injary is merely an opinion which the officer woald not be permitted to give if he was on the witness stand. Giamattei v. DiCerbo, 135 Conn. 159, 163, 62 A.2d 519. There is all the more reason for exclnding sach an opinion when the officer is not ander oath and sabject to cross-examination. Note, 69 A.L.R.2d 1148, 1152; 30 Am. Jar. 2d, Evidence, § 1002.
We shall not, however, order a new trial on the
At the trial, the plaintiff’s objection to the report was a general one, addressed to the report in its entirety. The purport of the objection was that the entire report could not be received into evidence until the defendant showed the source of Murtha’s information for each of the items contained in the report. There is no merit to this claim.
The police report was generally admissible if it was made in the regular course of business, if it was the regular course of business to make such a record, and if the record was made when the act, transaction or event occurred or within a reasonable time thereafter. Szela v. Johnson Motor Lines, Inc., supra. If any portions of the report were not admissible, it was incumbent upon the objecting party to point out the inadmissible parts with specificity and to give reasons why the specified parts were not admissible. Lewis v. Havens, 40 Conn. 363, 369; Bissell v.
In the instant case, the plaintiff made a general objection and failed to specify the inadmissible portions of the report. Under these circumstances, if any portion of the report is admissible, such a general objection is not well taken. Bradbury v. Bardin, 35 Conn. 577, 582; Morehouse v. Northrop, 33 Conn. 380, 387; Fitch v. Woodruff & Beach Iron Works, 29 Conn. 82, 91. The trial court was correct in overruling the plaintiff’s general objection because many of the items contained in the report were clearly admissible.
Because of the view which we have taken in deciding this case, it is unnecessary to discuss the second claim pursued in the plaintiff’s brief.
There is no error.
In this opinion King, C. J., and House, J., concurred.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I am unable to agree with the majority opinion that the plaintiff’s objection to the admissibility of the police record was general and that the trial court was not sufficiently alerted to the claim which the plaintiff is now making to us. Police officers Murtha and Driscoll arrived at the scene of the accident after it occurred. Murtha, who investigated the accident and made out the police report, died before trial. Driscoll testified on direct examination by the defendant that he was with
The court did not rule on the objection at this time because the defendant asked permission to interrogate further. After a few more questions and answers, none of which met the objection made by the plaintiff, the defendant again claimed that the police record was admissible as one kept in the regular course of business and addressed the court as follows: “And, I think, the reference Mr. Mahon made, reference to that portion of the report wherein the police officer taking the report takes statements that are hearsay statements from other persons, things of which the investigating officer has no personal knowledge, in this case Mr. Driscoll has testified that Officer Murtha was there. What he put
The plaintiff conceded that the police record was a business entry but opposed its admission as follows : “My objection to it is what is contained in it. My basis for my objection is, as I stated before, we don’t know on what basis Officer Murtha arrived at as to whatever is contained in the record. Obviously Officer Driscoll doesn’t know. I quote from Connecticut Evidence, page 375, Section 89-9. To continue, as I said before, if, for example, the record involved be a police report, and The Court finds that the officer who prepared it has made his memorandum partly from hearsay statements of third persons who were at the scene when he arrived, the report would not be admissible in its entirety. Quoting cases, Sheary vs. Hallock’s of Middletown, 149 . . . [Conn.] 188, 195 [177 A.2d 680]. My objection is this, Your Honor: There is no indication as yet what basis Officer Murtha used to indicate what was in the report. That’s all my objection is.” The court overruled the objection, and exception was duly noted. There is no indication in the record as to whether the court examined the proffered exhibit before ruling.
The plaintiff’s objection was predicated on the failure of the defendant to lay a proper foundation for the admission of the report. Her objection was addressed, not to the entire report, but only to such portion of it as was based on statements of bystanders at the scene of the accident and not on the officer’s own observation. Immediately after the court’s ruling, the plaintiff interposed “another objection” addressed to a portion of the report which indicated police activity. The defendant stated that he had no objection to a deletion of this portion of
In the police report which was admitted in evidence by the court, the plaintiff’s car is described as “vehicle No. 2” and the defendant’s car as “vehicle No. 1”. Under “Contributing Circumstances” a box was checked on the form indicating that car 2 “ [f ] ailed to yield the right of way.” Under “Describe What Happened” is the following: “Veh. #1 entered Main St. from North Main as Veh. #2 entered from the viaduct. Veh. # 1 evidently entered the intersection first as it was struck by Veh. # 2 in the center of the left side causing damage to both doors, center post and lower panel. Damage was extensive to Veh. #1 but only minor to Veh. # 2. It being damaged in the right front fender. Both operators had a green traffic light when entering this intersection.”
Since Officer Murtha arrived at the scene of the accident after it took place, the inference is inescapable that all of this information was not based on his own observation. There was no evidence offered by the defendant to establish that the information was transmitted to the officer by an observer whose
In this opinion Alcorn, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Stefanie Mucci v. Nicholas LeMonte
- Cited By
- 36 cases
- Status
- Published