The fact that a witness may be hostile or unwilling does not authorize making the witness a court's witness. Cole v. Cole, 116 Ill. App.2d 344, 253 N.E.2d 585. • 3 It appears that petitioner's counsel persuaded the court over objection that a "court's witness" and "impeachment" were equivalent and interchangeable.
The comment allegedly made to Rentner by Gullo was clearly hearsay and inadmissible to establish intoxication of the plaintiff. Hansel v. Chicago Transit Authority (1971), 132 Ill. App.2d 402, 408, 270 N.E.2d 553, 557; Cole v. Cole (1969), 116 Ill. App.2d 344, 349, 253 N.E.2d 585, 587. • 12 Thus, the only evidence tending to show that plaintiff was intoxicated was his fall from the platform.
However, notwithstanding the similarity between Rule 238 and the court's witness rule, decisions interpreting Rule 238 have unequivocably announced that "the Rule has nothing to do with making a witness a court's witness." Cole v. Cole, 116 Ill. App.2d 344, 347, 253 N.E.2d 585, 587; Kubisz v. Johnson, 29 Ill. App.3d 381, 329 N.E.2d 815. Plaintiff argues that had the supreme court intended to retain, or provide for, the practice whereby a witness could be called as a court's witness in a civil case, it would have so provided in Rule 238.