Opinion ID: 1197590
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Testimony of James Tate.

Text: During the course of the trial the State attempted to adduce the testimony of James Tate, a former State Trooper who had been assigned to investigate the Guinn accident. The State intended to elicit the measurements Tate had taken at the scene of the accident with respect to the respective positions of the vehicles involved. On voir dire the former trooper conceded that he held no recollection of the measurements independent of those figures on the accident report he had filed, although later he stated that the report had revived such a recollection. The trial court received but later struck Tate's testimony, which had been limited to the accident measurements, under Alaska Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b). [28] The basis for this order was the State's failure to produce the trooper's notebook, from which the information on the accident report had been transcribed. Prior to trial an order had been entered requiring production of various trooper notebooks. The State's response had been that the former Trooper Tate's notebook was his personal property and not then under the control of the department. However, testimony elicited at trial established that, in fact, Tate had given the notebook to the department prior to his resignation, that it was never returned to him, and that the State apparently made no effort to locate it prior to trial. Although the superior court was of the view that the State's failure to produce the notebook was not in bad faith or purposeful deception, it evidently felt the omission was serious. Since Tate's testimony was largely predicated on the accident report, which in turn was largely based on the missing notebook, the court concluded that the State's failure to comply with the discovery order warranted exclusion of the testimony. The State argues that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing this sanction when there was no showing of wilful recalcitrance. It is true that in Ketchikan Cold Storage Company v. State, 491 P.2d 143, 148 (Alaska 1971), we said: Although Rule 37 does not in terms require showing of wilfulness before any of its sanctions come into play, we will not sustain an establishment-preclusion order relating to a central issue in a case absent a showing of wilful failure to comply. In this case, however, no such devastating establishment-preclusion order was issued. The remedy selected by the trial court, far less drastic, was simply to preclude the State from making use of former Trooper Tate's testimony. The State remained free to establish the accident scene measurements by any other means it could. We have previously stated that a Rule 37 order will be reversed only when we are convinced that the court below has exceeded a proper discretion in that the order imposed was too strict or was unnecessary under the circumstances. [29] The order in this case is neither too strict nor unnecessary. The State next contends that the trial court's ruling precluded the State from adducing testimony from Tate concerning the weather and road conditions at the scene of the accident. The State's two offers of proof with respect to Tate's testimony made no mention of these matters; they indicated that the sole purpose of Tate's testimony was to establish measurements. This is ground enough to warrant a refusal to further consider this point. [30] Beyond that, there was ample uncontradicted testimony as to climatological conditions by other witnesses, so whatever Tate might have offered would have been cumulative. Assuming arguendo the exclusion was error, it was thus harmless error. [31] We conclude that the State's challenge to the exclusion of the Tate testimony is without merit. [32]