Opinion ID: 794464
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Affirmative Evidence

Text: 60 According to appellant, the Jones Report is a clear representation that, in a Roux-en-Y surgery, Dr. Salem made a three-centimeter anastomosis. Based on the connection between the Jones Report and Dr. Salem's deposition, during which he said that, in surgery, he always made his anastomoses the same size, appellant contends that this gives strong evidence of the fact that the anastomoses in the Jones and Henderson surgeries were the same, i.e., three centimeters. Henderson characterizes this evidence as the most probative evidence on the key issue in th[e] case. Br. for Appellant at 22-23. 61 As affirmative evidence, the Jones Report and corresponding deposition testimony by Dr. Salem clearly has probative value, although to what degree is unclear. Immediately following Dr. Salem's answer that he made his anastomoses the same size every time, he qualified that statement by claiming that he generally made them one centimeter. See Salem Dep. at 39, J.A. 376. Dr. Salem also contended that the Jones Report was accurate, but clarified that the three-centimeter anastomosis described in the report was measured from the outside and not the inside — accounting for the size discrepancy. While that explanation is subject to debate, its existence may limit the persuasiveness of the apparent three-centimeter admission. In other words, although the Jones Report is probative, it is not necessarily conclusive affirmative evidence supporting Henderson's case. 62 If the only issue here concerned whether the District Court abused its discretion in denying the Jones Report as affirmative evidence at the start of appellant's case, then the matter might be close. But Henderson sought to introduce the Jones Report not just as affirmative evidence in support of her cause of action, but also for purposes of impeachment, rebuttal, and rehabilitation. On these scores, it cannot be seriously doubted that the Jones Report is highly probative and not substantially outweighed by any dangers of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury. 63