Opinion ID: 663081
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Of Medical Records.

Text: 27 Icahn sought medical records relating to Conway's hospitalizations in 1978, 1986, 1987 and 1988 for the purpose of demonstrating that Conway was incapable of making investment decisions during the weeks following Black Monday. All the records were marked for identification but only the admission records for the 1987 hospitalization were received in evidence. Medical records pertaining to alcohol abuse are deemed confidential and need not be disclosed in the absence of a court order granted after a finding of good cause for their release. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 290dd-3(b)(2)(C) (1988). The probative value/unfair prejudice balancing required by Fed.R.Evid. 403, performed by the district court with regard to the medical records in this case, is a matter confided to the discretion of the district court. See George v. Celotex Corp., 914 F.2d 26, 26 (2d Cir.1990); McNeilab, Inc. v. American Home Prods. Corp., 848 F.2d 34, 38 (2d Cir.1988). A Rule 403 determination by the district court will be overruled only when it can be said that the district court abused its discretion. See Chnapkova v. Koh, 985 F.2d 79, 81 (2d Cir.1993). 28 In making available to counsel for Icahn the 1987 admission records and in receiving in evidence the portions of those records specified by counsel, the district court did not abuse its discretion. Obviously, the court found good cause to reveal the 1987 records to counsel, since the hospital admission came at the end of the period when Icahn claims that Conway sustained his losses by reason of inability to manage his financial affairs. It was Conway's conduct at the time immediately prior to that hospitalization that was critical to the point that Icahn was attempting to make. The district court acted well within its discretion in deciding that the other hospitalization records would be more prejudicial than probative. 29 It is questionable whether the 1978, 1986 and 1988 hospital records could be considered relevant within the meaning of Fed.R.Evid. 401 in any event. To be relevant, evidence must have a tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Fed.R.Evid. 401. Unless a district court's determination of relevance is arbitrary or irrational, it will not be overturned. See United States v. Torres, 901 F.2d 205, 234-35 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 906, 111 S.Ct. 273, 112 L.Ed.2d 229 (1990). It would not be irrational or arbitrary to say that the excluded hospitalization records did not tend to make more probable the inability of Conway to attend to his financial affairs during the period under scrutiny. In this connection, it is notable that the evidence that was placed before the jury enabled the jury to find that Conway was 48% at fault for the losses he sustained. 30 Finally, Icahn contends that the admission in evidence of the 1987 records on the final day of trial came too late and comprised too little for the defense to present its proposed expert testimony concerning the effect of Conway's alcoholic stupor both on his capacity to recall events and on his ability to respond to the margin calls when he received them. The short answer to this contention is that Icahn failed to request a recess in the trial in order to call the expert after the records were admitted. Icahn also had the option of recalling Conway or any other witness to the witness stand for further examination based on the records received in evidence. Having failed to exercise these options, and having elected to use the records received only for purposes of argument on summation, Icahn cannot be heard to complain of lost opportunities. 31