Opinion ID: 1749387
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ami 106a

Text: La'Ronda alleges that the failure of Brenntag to put its vice-president of production, and Sherwood's failure to put its in-house engineer on the stand at trial give rise to an inference that their testimony would have been unfavorable. Based on this alleged inference, La'Ronda asserts the circuit court erred in refusing to instruct the jury with AMI 106A on adverse inference. Instruction 106A provides as follows: Where relevant evidence is within the control of the party in whose interest it would naturally be to produce it, and that party fails to do so without satisfactory explanation, you may draw the inference that such evidence would not have been favorable to that party. We are cited to Saliba v. Saliba, 178 Ark. 250, 255-56, 11 S.W.2d 774, 776 (1928), where this court stated that an instruction similar to AMI 106A was proper where the defendant in a personal injury case arising from an automobile accident, who was driving the car, and who knew whether the injury was caused as alleged by putting the car in reverse, was present in court at the trial but did not testify. This court concluded in Saliba that the defendant's testimony would not have been trivial or cumulative because the question was whether defendant's car was put in reverse, and the defendant was the driver. Id. In Saliba , the plaintiff showed that the defendant had knowledge relevant to the cause and chose not to testify. La'Ronda conversely alleges that because Brenntag and Sherwood's witnesses held positions of significant authority, they must have had significant knowledge. We note that Brenntag's witness, its vice-president of production, and Sherwood's witness, an in-house engineer, were deposed, and their depositions were introduced into evidence and read at trial. La'Ronda fails to show that the witnesses had knowledge beyond that revealed in their depositions. We also note that while La'Ronda argues that the failure of a party present to testify at trial supports such an instruction, neither witness she complains of was present at trial. Instruction 106A provides that where relevant evidence is in the control of a party in whose natural interest it would be to produce it, and the party does not produce it, an inference may be found that the evidence was unfavorable. La'Ronda identifies no relevant evidence that was in the possession of the witnesses that they would have naturally been expected to produce that was not disclosed in their depositions. Rather, she asserts that the witnesses were beyond the subpoena power of the circuit court, and that, because the two witnesses were deposed before trial and did not appear at trial, an inference must arise that their cross-examination would have been unfavorable to appellees. No such inference arises under the common law set out in Saliba, supra , or under AMI 106A. What gives rise to the inference is identified relevant evidence in the possession of a party in whose interest it is to produce it and who fails to do so without satisfactory explanation. Volunteer Transp., Inc. v. House, 357 Ark. 95, 101, 162 S.W.3d 456, 459 (2004); Cox v. Farrell, 292 Ark. 177, 182, 728 S.W.2d 954, 956 (1987). The circuit court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to instruct the jury on AMI 106A. See Williams v. First Unum Life Ins. Co., 358 Ark. 224, 188 S.W.3d 908 (2004).