Armendaiz v. Stillman

Citations

• 67 Tex. 458
• 3 S.W. 678
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 907

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence.—The fact that evidence may be weak and have but slight bearing on the issue to be tried, affords no reason for its exclusion.</p> <p>2. Evidence of. Experts.—The evidence of experts should be confined with much strictness within the rules regulating its admission, since from its very nature, a relaxation of these rules may lead to great abuses. To illustrate: An expert who sat and listened to conflicting evidence regarding the construction of a jetty, and its effect in changing the current of a river whereby the plaintiff claimed that his land had been cut away to his damage, qualified himself as an expert, and testified to some (chough limited) personal knowledge of the facts. He was asked whether it was his opinion that the jetty produced, or brought about, or had any part in producing any part of the damage described as having been sustained by the plaintiff. Held:</p> <p>(1) An expert could give his opinion on a state of facts pertaining to his art or science which he might assume to be true, and the court and jury must then decide whether his assumption of facts was correct.</p> <p>(2) But he could not give his opinion as an expert, as to his conclusion from facts testified about in conflicting testimony, the existence or nonexistence of which should he determined by the court or jury, and not by the expert.</p> <p>(3) If his opinion was desired, as an expert, regarding the effect of given facts in producing results, it should have been sought by stating a hypothetical ease, and thus his judgment and opinion on the whole evidence that he had heard would have been avoided.</p> <p>(4) The answer should have been excluded, for it required the expert to usurp the province of the jury and pass on disputed facts.</p> <p>3. Riparian Rights—Damages.—It is the right of every riparian proprietor have the stream fronting his land flow in its natural channel, and if it be diverted from that channel to his damage by obstructions, an action will lie. In such