Opinion ID: 663353
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Rebuttal Witness

Text: 44 Shortly before trial commenced Landrum claimed to have discovered the smoking gun in relation to his retaliation claim. According to Landrum, Giles Black, counsel for EKU, had made statements to an investigator for the Kentucky Human Rights Commission indicating that Landrum had been fired in retaliation for his earlier lawsuit against EKU. Due to the late hour of the disclosure of this information, the court ruled that the investigator's testimony could be used only in rebuttal and only in the event that the import of the testimony was previously denied. 45 Landrum did not call Black as a witness during his case in chief, although he was avaialble, nor did Landrum put forward any evidence as to what Black may or may not have said. When Landrum attempted to call Black as a rebuttal witness, the trial court refused to permit him to do so, since [w]ithout a foundation, Black could not properly have been called as a rebuttal witness. The trial court [i]n the exercise of sound discretion ... may limit the scope of rebuttal testimony.... Martin v. Weaver, 666 F.2d 1013, 1020 (6th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 962 (1982). Here, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to allow Landrum to call Giles Black as a rebuttal witness.