Opinion ID: 186209
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Administration of Trial Proceedings

Text: 61 In addition to her challenge to the grant of Omni's Rule 50(a) motion, Teneyck claims on appeal that she was denied an orderly, fair, and efficient trial because of the trial judge's administration of the trial proceedings. The gravamen of this claim is that the judge was preoccupied with a number of competing demands on his time, and that he was therefore inclined to jettison or to inadvertently sabotage the trial. Appellant's Br. at 10. Teneyck identifies four purported competing demands: (1) the criminal trial over which the judge was presiding and in which the jury was still deliberating; (2) the judge's daughter's basketball game originally scheduled for the evening of the first day of trial (which was ultimately canceled); (3) the judge's upcoming medical procedure; and (4) the need to get Omni's first witness on the stand on the first day of the trial. Id. 62 We find no merit in this claim. The only specific actions of the District Court cited by Teneyck are the judge's decision to take a brief recess to address the jury in the ongoing criminal trial and his decision to allow Omni's witness to take the stand on the first day of trial without having given Teneyck's counsel notice until the morning of that day. Teneyck failed to raise any objection to either of these decisions at trial and accordingly they are not properly before us on appeal. See, e.g., Martini v. Fed. Nat'l Mortgage Ass'n, 178 F.3d 1336, 1340 (D.C.Cir.1999) (citing Hooks v. Wash. Sheraton Corp., 578 F.2d 313, 316-17 (D.C.Cir.1977)). In any event, we see no indication that the District Court abused its discretion to manage the trial proceedings. Nothing in the record suggests that the proceedings were conducted in a hurried or disorderly manner, that Teneyck had inadequate time to present her case or to cross-examine Omni's witness, or that she was otherwise prejudiced by the conduct on which her claim is based. Certainly nothing in the conduct Teneyck identifies remotely approaches plain error.