105 Wis. 217 | Wis. | 1900
Lead Opinion
The following opinion was filed November 7, 1899:
As we view the record on this appeal, a decision of the question of whether the evidence warrants
The deceased, Clarence S. Griffin, at the time of his death, resided with his family, consisting of his wife and stepdaughter four and one-half years of age, in the second story of a dwelling house in the city of Superior, Wisconsin, which was occupied on the first floor, partly by William Butler and family and partly by Louis Burgraff and family. The Griffin kitchen was in the front part of the house at the right of the front entrance. From it there was an outside door leading to a back stairway, the foot of which reached to about the location of the door of the Butler kitchen. There was also a door between the Griffin kitchen and their dining room back of such kitchen; also a door connecting such dining room with a bed room used by the family for sleeping apartments, such room being at the left of the dining room as the latter was approached from the kitchen. There was a commode near the bed-room door inside such room at the right of the entrance, in the drawer of which the deceased customarily kept a revolver when it was not on his person. He always placed it there evenings after his return from his day’s labor, if he had carried it during the day.
About 9:15 on the evening of December 14, 1894, the Griffin family all being at home, and the women occupants of the lower part of the house having retired for the night, footsteps were heard in the upper kitchen as of some person moving hurriedly across the floor. Immediately thereafter Mrs. Griffin left such kitchen by the back stairway, taking with her, or followed by, the little girl, and closed the door behind her. She ran quickly down such stairway, and in a nervous and excited manner rapped sharply at Mrs. Butler’s kitchen door. About the time the circumstances just related were occurring, a person passed from the Griffin dining room
A post mortem examination was made which revealed the following facts: The bullet passed into the head nearly at right angles with the side. It ranged slightly upward and lodged against the opposite table of the skull and was somewhat flattened. The inner table of the skull where the bullet entered was considerably fractured, pieces of it having been driven into the brain substance, which, on that side of the head, was much lacerated, disorganized, and congested with blood. There was no evidence observed of powder, fire, or smoke having been projected into the brain, nor any ■external indication of fire, smoke, or powder. The evidence tended to show that the revolver, when discharged, must have been held at least eight inches from the head to ac•count for the absence of discoloration on the surface in the vicinity of the wound, or that it was held firmly against the head. The latter situation at the time the pistol was discharged, while it would account for absence of external evidence, would suggest the presence of internal evidence of fire, powder, and smoke having been forced into the brain; but, as before stated, no such evidence was discovered. The
There was evidence of experts to the effect that if a pistol be discharged with the muzzle pressed firmly against the head, there may be no evidence of fire, powder, or smoke, externally or internally. There was also expert evidence to the contrary, some of it by persons who had never seen such a case. There was evidence of a person to the effect that he had seen,just such an occurrence, and that there was no external evidence of fire, powder, or smoke. There was also evidence of actual tests made with the revolver which caused the death of Griffin, showing that a shot from it would burn cotton batting but slightly if at all more than three or four inches away, but would produce powder marks on tissue paper twelve or fourteen inches arpy There was no evidence to create even a suspicion that any human agency was concerned in firing the shot which killed Griffin, other than that of himself.
Now looking at the circumstances and evidence related, leaving out of view all evidence tending to show motive for self-destruction, because there was ample room to find both ways on that subject, can an appeal to common sense and common experience, as to where the truth lies, result in any other response than that Griffin committed suicide ? That is the question. If it may reasonably be answered in the negative, the judgment appealed from cannot be disturbed.
It is said that the legal presumption is that the circum
What have we left but a multitude of circumstances, all pointing to and consistent with the theory of suicide and inconsistent with any other reasonable theory? Nothing that can be found in the record, in our judgment. If it could be said that the evidence does not point that way so strongly but that there is yet room for a reasonable inference inconsistent with it, the case was for the jury, and since the trial court, who saw the witnesses and heard all the testimony, decided that there was such room, this court should lean towards supporting that decision in a case of fair doubt on the question. Powell v. Ashland I. & S. Co. 98 Wis. 35; Hennessy v. Douglas Co. 99 Wis. 129; Dewey v. C., M. & St. P. R. Co. 99 Wis. 455. Neither of such circumstances exists here. The jury could not have said, as men, that the circumstances- did not show suicide so as to leave no reasonable probability to the contrary; therefore it was not permissible for them to say it as jurors and have that stand as a verity in the case. The court should have granted the motion to direct the verdict, and, failing in that, should have set the verdict aside and granted a new trial.
A careful examination of the cases to which we are referred, and which are relied upon to support the judgment, shows uniformly some circumstance or circumstances reasonably inconsistent with suicide which are not found in this case. In Stephenson v. Bankers' L. Asso. (Iowa), 79 N.
We have discussed the question for decision at much greater length than was necessary in order to reach a satisfactory conclusion and state clearly the reasons therefor, but the subject is of sufficient importance to render all that has. been said quite proper. It is considered that the evidence shows that Griffin intentionally destroyed his life, that such fact appears with such clearness as to leave no room for any other reasonable hypothesis, that the motion for the direction of a verdict should have been granted, and failing: in that, the court should have set aside the verdict ancl granted a new-trial. In reaching this conclusion full effect, has been given to all legal presumptions in plaintiff’s favor, and the rule that the burden of proof was on the defendant
By the Court.— So ordered.
Dissenting Opinion
I respectfully dissent in this case, because I think- the circumstances shown by the evidence are fully as consistent with the theory of accidental shooting as with the theory of suicide, and, if such be the case, the law is well settled that the legal presumption is against suicide, and must prevail. With all deference to the opinion of the court, I must be allowed to say that there are important facts in the case which are not stated in that opinion. Some of these facts I will briefly state. In the first place, there was substantially no evidence of a previous suicidal intent. The deceased had never made a threat of suicide, so far as the evidence shows, nor does it appear that there was any substantial cause for unhappiness or despondency on his part. It is true that one witness testified that at some time in 1894, before the marriage of the deceased, he asked the witness if she thought life was worth living, and that he then appeared despondent; while another witness says that he seemed despondent in December just before the shooting, but the remoteness of the first-named incident, in point of time, as well as the utter absence of any other testimony indicating any thought of suicide, deprive it of any substantial weight, especially in view of the fact that there is considerable evidence given by his familiar friends to the effect that he had no financial troubles, and that he was always good natUred and happy, even up to the very day of the shooting. Certainly it cannot be said that suicidal intent or any reasonable cause for suicide appeared in the evidence. While not by any means controlling, absence of motive or previous suicidal intent is always an important consideration.
Another fact comes in here. The evidence shows, without substantial contradiction, that the revolver was not held close to the head, but at least a foot from it. This is in part shown by the evidence of the physicians who performed an autopsy and removed the brain. They agree that there were no marks of powder or discoloration from burning in the brain, and they also agree that, if the pistol was pressed
It is said in the opinion of the court in the present case that, if there is room for a reasonable inference under the evidence inconsistent with the theory of suicide, the case was one for the jury. This is but another way of expressing the principle that, if reasonable minds viewing the evidence may differ in their conclusions therefrom, the question should be submitted to the jury. Two members of this court, as well as the trial judge and the jury, who saw and heard the witnesses, have reached a different conclusion as to the inferences fairly deducible from the evidence from that reached by a majority of this court. Is it not an extreme statement
A motion for a rehearing was denied January 9, 1900.