Opinion ID: 2057254
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Absent Witnesses

Text: North Western also contends that the trial judge erred in allowing codefendant Schwinn to offer evidence and argument concerning the railroad's failure to call two previously identified witnesses to testify at trial in this case. In its answers to interrogatories propounded by the plaintiff, North Western had identified John McClellan as a person having knowledge of the condition of the crossing after the plaintiff's accident, and John Forester as an expert witness on the subjects of bicycle construction and maintenance, and accident reconstruction. North Western did not call either man to testify in this case. The trial judge denied Schwinn's motion to present as evidence certain portions of Forester's deposition. But the court did permit Schwinn, over North Western's objection to read to the jurors the railroad's interrogatory answers identifying the two men, and, in argument, counsel commented adversely on the witnesses' absence. Schwinn did not, however, tender an instruction on the inference that may drawn from a party's failure to produce a witness within its control (see Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Civil, No. 5.01 (2d ed. 1971) (IPI Civil 2d)), and no instruction on that subject was given. North Western contends here that the trial judge erred in permitting Schwinn to identify the two witnesses to the jurors and to comment on their absence. As a general matter, the adverse inference is available when the missing witness was under the control of the party to be charged and could have been produced by reasonable diligence, the witness was not equally available to the party requesting that the inference be made, a reasonably prudent person would have produced the witness if the party believed that the testimony would be favorable, and no reasonable excuse for the failure to produce the witness is shown. ( Hollembaek v. Dominick's Finer Foods, Inc. (1985), 137 Ill. App.3d 773, 776; IPI Civil 2d, No. 5.01; see Wetherell v. Matson (1977), 52 Ill. App.3d 314, 318-19 (same criteria govern use of pattern instruction and allowance of adverse comment in argument).) The decision whether to use the instruction or permit the argument is reserved to the sound discretion of the court (see Tonarelli v. Gibbons (1984), 121 Ill. App.3d 1042, 1046-47 (instruction)), and we do not believe that the trial judge abused his discretion in permitting Schwinn's counsel to comment adversely on the two witnesses' absence. North Western retained Forester as one of its two expert witnesses in this case. In answer to the plaintiff's interrogatories, North Western explained that the witnesses would testify on different subjects; the railroad's answer stated, Defendant intends to call Rex Nickelson [ sic ] as a crossing expert and Mr. John Forester as its expert on bicycle construction and maintenance as well as on the subject of accident reconstruction. Forester had been hired by North Western, and, because he lived in another State, he could not be subpoenaed to testify by the other parties. It was proper for the court to conclude that Forester was under North Western's control and was not available to the opposing parties. (See Ciborowski v. Philip Dressler & Associates (1983), 110 Ill. App.3d 981, 985-86.) In light of North Western's identification of Forester as an authority on subjects not within the expertise of its other expert witness, it was also reasonable for the court to conclude that Forester would have been called to testify in this case if North Western had believed that he would offer favorable testimony. Nor do we believe that the railroad offered a reasonable excuse for its failure to call the witness. Contrary to North Western's claim, we do not consider that his testimony would have been merely cumulative. Under the circumstances present in this case, it was not an abuse of discretion for the trial judge to permit Schwinn to read North Western's answer to interrogatories, which identified Forester as one of its anticipated witnesses ( cf. Cicale v. Aronson (1969), 113 Ill. App.2d 324, 333 (interrogatory answer improperly read because witness not under party's control)), and to comment on the witness' absence. Nor did the trial judge abuse his discretion in allowing Schwinn to comment adversely on North Western's failure to call its employee, McClellan, as a witness. North Western sent McClellan to inspect the crossing scene shortly after the plaintiff's accident; McClellan was accompanied by a photographer, who took North Western's accident-scene photographs. We consider that McClellan, as North Western's employee, was within the railroad's control. (See Donnelly v. Washington National Insurance Co. (1985), 136 Ill. App.3d 78, 88; Kerns v. Lenox Machine Co. (1979), 74 Ill. App.3d 194, 198-99.) Moreover, it may be assumed that North Western would have presented the witness if it had believed that his testimony would be favorable. North Western contends, however, that it offered a reasonable excuse for not introducing the witness' testimony. During trial, after North Western's photographs of the crossing were barred from evidence because they depicted Central Avenue as a one-way street, the trial judge said that he would permit Schwinn's counsel, in cross-examining McClellan, to refer to the taking of the excluded photographs. North Western argues that its reason for not presenting the witness was a reasonable one, in light of the trial judge's indication that he would permit the proposed cross-examination. We do not believe that North Western can now claim prejudice in this regard. North Western's predicament was largely of its own making, for the railroad had declined opposing counsel's suggestion that the photographs could be cropped in a simple manner, which would have permitted their admission. Under the circumstances here, it was not an abuse of discretion for the trial judge to allow comment to be made on North Western's failure to call the investigator as a witness.