Opinion ID: 421753
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Acts Prior to Marriage

Text: 10 The district court also relied on the rationale that the acts about which Clark would have testified occurred prior to marriage. This exception was created in the Van Drunen decision. 501 F.2d at 397. The Van Drunen decision adopted the exception because it was consistent with proposed Fed.R.Evid. 505(c) (which was not adopted, see 2 Weinstein's Evidence, at 505-1 (1982)) and because of the possibility that marriages would be entered into for the purpose of suppressing testimony. 501 F.2d at 1397. Clark argues that because there was no evidence that his marriage was a sham the Van Drunen rule should not be applied in this case. 11 Although it is true that Van Drunen created the premarriage acts exception because of a concern with collusive marriages, there is nothing in the opinion to suggest that the exception applies only when there is evidence presented of a collusive marriage. By imposing a general rule that the privilege does not cover premarriage acts, courts can avoid mini-trials on the issue of the sincerity of the parties in getting married. The limitation on the scope of the privilege of a spouse not to testify is consistent with the general policy of limiting the privilege because it interferes with fact-finding. See pages 301-302, supra. 12 Also, the failure of Congress to adopt proposed Fed.R.Evid. 505(c) did not signal the rejection of the premarriage acts exception. Fed.R.Evid. 501 allows the scope of privileges to be governed by the principles of the common law as they may be interpreted by the courts of the United States in the light of reason and experience. In rejecting the specific rule relating to a husband-wife privilege, Congress manifested an intention to provide courts with the flexibility to develop rules of privilege on a case-by-case basis. Trammel, 445 U.S. at 47, 100 S.Ct. at 910. 13 Finally, the pre-marriage acts exception has been recognized by two other circuits for the marital privilege for confidential communications. United States v. Pensinger, 549 F.2d 1150, 1151 (8th Cir.1977); Volianitis v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 352 F.2d 766, 768 (9th Cir.1965). We can find no cases which have rejected the exception. Clark argues that the Sixth Circuit rejected the exception in United States v. Barlow, 693 F.2d 954, 961-62 (6th Cir.1982), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 2124, 76 L.Ed.2d ---- (1983). However, it is not at all clear that Barlow rejected the exception. In Barlow the defendant's wife asserted the privilege not to testify against her spouse even though she and the defendant were married after the illegal acts occurred. Id. at 957. As a result, the district court concluded that the witness was unavailable for purposes of Fed.R.Evid. 804(a) and allowed the government to introduce her grand jury testimony as evidence with circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness with an unavailable witness under Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(5). The Sixth Circuit said the admission of the grand jury testimony was proper. Id. at 963. The court's ruling on the admissibility of the grand jury testimony did not necessarily imply that the witness was correct in asserting her privilege. A witness is unavailable if he or she is exempted from testifying because of a privilege, Fed.R.Evid. 804(a)(1), or if he or she simply refuses to testify. Fed.R.Evid. 804(a)(2). The court did not explicitly state under which subsection the witness was considered unavailable. Id. at 957. However, the court did imply that it was Fed.R.Evid. 804(a)(2) by citing that subsection and then stating: In the case at bar [the witness] was clearly unavailable. Id. at 961. Therefore, Barlow apparently does not reject the pre-marriage acts exception. Furthermore, even if it did, we would still be bound by the Van Drunen decision.