Opinion

ARKANSAS LOUISIANA GAS COMPANY v. Evans

  • 397 P.2d 505
  • 1964 OK 249
  • 1964 Okla. LEXIS 471
Court
Supreme Court of Oklahoma
Filed
Nov 24, 1964
Status
Published
Author
Berry
On the bench
Halley, Blackbird, Williams, Irwin', Davison, Berry, Johnson, Jackson
Cited by
4 cases
Authority
More cited than 6.6%

The opinion

BERRY, Justice

(concurring specially).

The term “spontaneous” as applied to “res gestae” expressions emphasizes the idea of an inner impulse acting without an external stimulus; it lays primary stress on the absence of external compulsion. A spontaneous expression is one made under the dominating influence of the very occurrence to which it relates. This is in contrast to communications which are elicited through a deliberate interchange of thoughts between two or more persons. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Nelson, Okl., 384 P.2d 914 . Measured by these definitions, the statements by the deceased workman made in answer to his daughter’s inquiry cannot, strictly speaking, qualify as spontaneous in nature. Although the daughter’s initial question to her father was doubtless provoked instinctively by his sudden appearance in a state of ill health, this, of course, cannot in any way alter the fact that decedent’s expressions were not voluntary or spontaneous but given in response to a direct query. The conversation between decedent and his daughter took place when decedent was resting at his home some three hours after the alleged episode of exertion.

While decedent’s statements lack, the requisite quality of spontaneity, there is, in my opinion, sufficient evidence here as to decedent’s condition to justify our inference that at the time the expressions in question were made decedent was actually in a state of shock so that his reflective faculties remained stilled. This does, to *513 my way of thinking, eliminate the possibility of design and renders the statements admissible. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Nelson, supra.

I,therefore, concur specially in the Court’s opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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