Hixson v. Rabe

Citations

• 33 Ohio C.C. Dec. 217
• 18 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 569
• 1907 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 433

Syllabus

<p>WITNESSES</p> <p>1. Refusal to Permit Recall of Witness Whose Answers Ambiguous.</p> <p>It is an abuse of discretion to refuse to permit a witness to be recalled for the purpose of re-examination on matters she has already testified to, when her original answers are ambiguous and it is desired to make them definite, if possible, so as to lay the ground for putting an hypothetical question to an expert witness.</p> <p>2. Refusal to Permit Witness to Express Opinion to Proper Hypothetical Question Erroneous.</p> <p>Upon the putting of a proper hypothetical question to a medical expert witness the court, before passing upon objections to the question said to the witness: “Could you answer that question, if under the law it were competent?” to which the witness replied: “It would be a very hard question to answer.” Whereupon counsel asked: “Have you an opinion — could you give an opinion, that is the question,” to which the witness replied: “I could possibly give my own personal opinion,” whereupon the court sustained the objection to the hypothetical question, not only as to this witness, but as to other expert witnesses, to whom it was afterwards put.</p> <p>Held: error.</p>