Opinion ID: 2405402
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: listing of witnesses before trial

Text: One final question remains for our consideration. It arises out of the fact that the Commonwealth, in response to interrogatories submitted by the condemnees a week or two before the trial, listed the names of the witnesses the Commonwealth intended to use on the trial, including some engineers and appraisers. Upon the trial, however, the Commonwealth undertook to use two appraiser witnesses who had not been listed, in place of two who had been listed. Upon objection's being made by the condemnees the court refused to permit the unlisted witnesses to testify. The Commonwealth maintains that the court erred in so ruling. The question is a difficult one, and is a new one in this jurisdiction. See Clay, CR, 26.02, Comment 3, pp. 269, 270; Grauman, Deposition and Discovery, 47 Kentucky Law Journal 175. We feel that we should not answer the question until it is squarely presented. It is not necessary to answer it in this case because we are reversing the judgment on other grounds and the question may not arise on another trial. In our opinion, even if the listing that was made was properly held to be binding on the Commonwealth at the first trial, that particular listing, because of lapse of time, could not be binding at a second trial. Whether the question will arise at the second trial will depend upon whether there is a new request for a listing of witnesses, whether that request is honered or refused, and whether, if honored, the party of whom the request was made undertakes to use an unlisted witness at the trial.