Pensacola Electric Co. v. Bissett

Citations

• 59 Fla. 360

Syllabus

<p>1. Although an expert witness may not be questioned, either upon his direct or cross-examination, upon an hypothesis having no foundation in the evidence, yet it is not required that the hypothetical case put to him should be an exact reproduction of the evidence, or an accurate presentation of what has been testified to. Counsel may present to him any hypothetical case in accordance with any reasonable theory based upon the evidence, but, in the event that the jury should find that the facts upon which such hypothesis or theory of the case was based have not been proved, the answer of the expert necessarily falls with the hypothesis.</p> <p>2. An expert witness who has given his opinion upon, any question or hypothesis submitted to him may be further interrogated upon his cross-examination as to the reasons for such an opinion. And for this purpose it is within the discretion of the trial court to widen the range of such cross-examination, even so as to include matters not strictly pertinent to the issues, in order to test the witness’ means of knowledge, the extent of his information, memory, accuracy or credibility, and an appellate court will not interfere with the exercise of such discretion, unless a clear abuse thereof is made to appear.</p> <p>3. Where an instruction, so far as it goes, states a correct proposition of law, but is defective because it fails to qualify or explain the proposition it lays down in accordance with the facts of the case, such defect is cured if subsequent instructions are given containing the required qualifications or exceptions. It is not required that a single instruction should contain all the law relating to the particular subject treated therein.</p> <p>4. In determining the correctness of charges and instructions, they should be considered as a whole, and, if as a whole, they are free from error, an assignment predicated on isolated paragraphs or portions, which, standing alone, might be misleading, must fail. In passing