Opinion ID: 159203
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admission of Evidence of Other Lawsuits

Text: 98 Prior to trial, the Plaintiffs moved in limine to exclude any evidence of other lawsuits which they filed against the Defendants after filing the instant action in 1985. The court ruled, however, that evidence of these other lawsuits, including that plaintiff William Koch named his own mother as a defendant in one, demonstrated William's ongoing hostility toward his brothers Charles and David. The court further ruled that the evidence of these lawsuits was relevant to William's purported reliance on Charles and David prior to the SPA, as well as to his bias and credibility as a fact witness. The Plaintiffs then moved for reconsideration and modification of this in limine ruling. In response, the district court issued another order clarifying that evidence of other lawsuits could not be offered to show William likes to file lawsuits, that [he] files lawsuits devoid of merit, or that [he] lacked proper feelings and consideration for his mother. In addition, the district court stated that William should have an opportunity to explain his reasons for filing these lawsuits, but that there was no need for either side to introduce evidence, comments, findings, or rulings from these other suits. 99 During opening statement and over the Plaintiffs' objection, defense counsel noted that William's hostility toward his brothers was the motive behind the instant suit, as evidenced by his and Frederick Koch's later suit against the Koch Family Charitable Foundation and its trustees, which included their own mother. Furthermore, while cross-examining William, defense counsel elicited testimony that William had sued his brothers and mother in the Foundation litigation, that he greatly upset his mother by subpoenaing her into court, and that he later brought suit challenging his mother's will. The Plaintiffs objected to this line of questioning as irrelevant and a violation of the court's in limine order. As a consequence, the court instructed the Defendants not to delve into the specific facts of these lawsuits. Two days later, the Plaintiffs filed a motion for a mistrial because the Defendants had unfairly elicited testimony about William's suing his mother and injected evidence of the outcome of one post-1985 lawsuit. The district court denied that motion. Two weeks later, however, the district court precluded the introduction of any further evidence that William sued his mother. Finally, before submitting the case to the jury, the district court gave an instruction only to consider evidence of these other lawsuits on issues of the motives, intent, bias, and credibility of the parties, and not to consider whether any party is overly litigious or to cast judgment on the propriety of the intra-family relationships. 100 The Plaintiffs now challenge the district court's rulings which allowed introduction of this evidence of post-1985 lawsuits. They argue this evidence lacked relevance or, at best, had de minimis probative value which was substantially outweighed by the danger of prejudice resulting from William's admission that he sued his own mother. [T]he admission or exclusion of evidence lies within the sound discretion of the district court and will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. Seymore v. Shawver & Sons Inc., 111 F.3d 794, 800 (10th Cir. 1997). To determine whether a district court properly admitted evidence of other acts, this court requires: 101 (1) the evidence was offered for a proper purpose; (2) the evidence was relevant; (3) the trial court determined under Fed. R. Evid. 403 that the probative value of the evidence was not substantially outweighed by its potential for unfair prejudice; and (4) the trial court gave the jury the proper limiting instructions upon request. 102 United States v. Lazcano-Villalobos, 175 F.3d 838, 846 (10th Cir. 1999) (quotation omitted). 103 The Defendants offered the disputed evidence for proper purposes. The Defendants first claimed that evidence of these lawsuits demonstrated William Koch's bias. See United States v. Abel, 469 U.S. 45, 51 (1984) (holding that the use of evidence of bias to impeach a witness is permissible); United States v. DeSoto, 950 F.2d 626, 630 (10th Cir. 1991). Additionally, the Defendants asserted that this evidence bore directly on an essential element of several of William's claims: whether William relied on the Defendants' misrepresentations. 13 See United States v. Shumway, 112 F.3d 1413, 1421-22 (10th Cir. 1997) (Prior acts evidence is clearly relevant to show an essential element . . . . (quotation omitted)). The evidence therefore was offered for permissible purposes. 104 Evidence of the post-1985 lawsuits, however, did not in fact bear upon these two stated purposes. Thus, the district court should have excluded the evidence as irrelevant. Federal Rule of Evidence 401 defines relevant evidence as evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Fed. R. Evid. 401. Federal Rule of Evidence 402 bars the introduction of any evidence that is not relevant. See Fed. R. Evid. 402. This court first fails to understand how evidence that William filed these lawsuits actually demonstrates to any degree that William's testimony may be less credible due to his bias against his brothers, particularly when the Defendants did not, and perhaps could not, show that these lawsuits were frivolous. The Second Circuit rejected the precise argument advanced by the Defendants, concluding that evidence of other suits brought by a plaintiff against the defendants go[es] to character rather than bias. Outley v. City of New York, 837 F.2d 587, 594 (2d Cir. 1988). Although the Outley court recognized the possibility that evidence of other lawsuits could be probative as to bias, the particular details of each action, and the extent to which the bringing of each action was justified, must be before the jury to render the evidence relevant and admissible. Id. at 595. Here, the district court precluded such an examination of the details and merit of the lawsuits, and thus, the evidence admitted was not relevant to William's alleged bias. 105 Additionally, the evidence admitted was not relevant to the issue of William's reliance on his brothers' representations in signing the SPA. The evidence concerned lawsuits filed at least two years after the SPA and in part indicated William had sued his mother. Though the filing of these lawsuits might demonstrate William's distrust of his brothers after 1985, the parties entered into the SPA in 1983. This evidence thus lacks probative value as to William's reliance on his brothers in entering into that 1983 agreement. Furthermore, evidence that William sued his mother, even if such a suit had been brought prior to the 1983 SPA, demonstrates nothing about his attitude toward and reliance upon his brothers. Because the contested evidence is irrelevant to the stated purposes for which it was offered, this court concludes that the district court erred in admitting it. 106 When a trial court erroneously receives evidence, this court will reverse the jury's verdict only if the error prejudicially affects a substantial right of a party. Sanjuan v. IBP, Inc., 160 F.3d 1281, 1296 (10th Cir. 1998). This court deems such wrongly admitted evidence prejudicial only if we reasonably conclude that the jury would have reached a different result without that evidence. See id. Having reviewed the transcript of this trial, this court cannot reasonably conclude that the jury would have found for the Plaintiffs had it not learned of these other lawsuits. In the context of this eleven week trial, it is extremely doubtful that the lone, brief colloquy between defense counsel and William about suing his brothers and mother and one passing mention of this evidence in the Defendants' opening statement caused the jury to find for the Defendants. Therefore, although the district court did err in admitting the disputed evidence, that error did not sufficiently prejudice the Plaintiffs to warrant reversal of the judgment. 107