Opinion ID: 2336426
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of the Testimony of Mr. Agiliga

Text: After calling appellees Ekeanyanwu and Anyaibe to the stand and questioning them, Mbakpuo attempted to call appellee Agiliga. Upon objection, the trial court ruled that because Agiliga was appellees' attorney of record, as well as a party, Mbakpuo was required to provide some sort of notice, either in a pre-trial statement or during the pre-trial conference, of his intention to call Agiliga as a witness. Since he had not given such notice, the court refused to allow him to put Mr. Agiliga on the stand. Because neither appellant nor appellees submitted a pre-trial statement in this case, the trial court, in its pre-trial order, restricted each side to calling only the actual parties to the suit as witnesses. Mbakpuo claims that this order provided adequate notice of his intent to call all of the appellees, including Mr. Agiliga, and asserts that Agiliga's status as counsel of record was not a sufficient reason for refusing to allow him to call Agiliga as a witness. Under Super. Ct. Civ. R. 16(e)(5), [11] [a] trial court has broad discretion... in refusing to admit evidence which was required to be disclosed in a pretrial statement .... Cooper v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 629 A.2d 31, 35 (D.C. 1993). We find no abuse of that discretion here. Mr. Mbakpuo was fully aware that Mr. Agiliga was representing the other two appellees, as well as himself. Permitting Mbakpuo to call Agiliga to the stand, without prior notice that he intended to do so, would have needlessly interrupted and prolonged the proceedings. Ekeanyanwu and Anyaibe, who were surely not prepared for such a contingency, would have been obliged either to hire outside counsel or to prepare themselves to act as counsel during the testimony of Mr. Agiliga. In addition, Mr. Mbakpuo told the court that his purpose in calling Agiliga was to lay a foundation for the introduction of certain records which allegedly would have shown that the appellees were associated with him before 1993. Even if he had been successful in this attempt, thereby casting doubt on appellees' statement that they had never been associated with him, the evidence would not have directly challenged appellees' basic allegation that Mbakpuo used their names without their consent in 1993 and 1994. On this record we hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in precluding Mr. Mbakpuo from calling Mr. Agiliga to the stand.