(DOWNLOAD) "Burlington Northern Railroad Co. V. Hood" by Colorado Supreme Court " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Burlington Northern Railroad Co. V. Hood
- Author : Colorado Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 10, 1990
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
The question in this case is whether the trial court, during a jury trial on a personal injury claim brought under the Federal Employer's Liability Act, 45 U.S.C. § § 51 to - 60 (1989), erred in prohibiting the defendant from questioning the plaintiff and the plaintiff's wife about a purported conversation in which the plaintiff allegedly admitted to his wife, who repeated the conversation to several other persons, that he had staged a work-related accident and had feigned the injuries for which he sought damages against the defendant-employer. The trial court ruled that such evidence was inadmissible because it might encroach upon the statutory marital privilege for communications between husband and wife, § 13-90-107(1)(a)(I), 6A C.R.S. (Supp. 1990), also because any testimony about the conversation ostensibly would be lacking in personal knowledge and credibility in light of the wife's deposition testimony that the statement attributed to her husband may have been a dream, and, finally, because any trial testimony by the wife about the conversation would constitute inadmissible hearsay. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and the court of appeals affirmed the judgment in an unpublished opinion. Hood v. Burlington Northern Co., No. 86CA1799 (April 27, 1989). In affirming the judgment, the court of appeals did not consider the issue of marital privilege, but upheld the trial court's rulings on other grounds. It concluded that any cross-examination of the wife about her reporting the conversation to others would have been beyond the scope of her direct examination and inadmissible hearsay, that it would have been improper for the defendant to have elicited testimony from other witnesses about the wife's statement because of its hearsay nature, and that the defendant failed to preserve for appellate review its right to cross-examine the plaintiff about his alleged admission to his wife. We granted the defendant's petition for certiorari to consider whether the court of appeals properly resolved these evidentiary issues. We now reverse the judgment and remand the case for a new trial.