Opinion ID: 382199
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury's Use of Diagram

Text: 44 One page of one of the Calspan reports, which contained a diagram of the exterior deformation of a test car following a side collision with a stationary pole, was introduced as plaintiffs' exhibit 107, and was taken by the jurors into the jury room when they retired to decide the case. Chrysler objected to neither the admission of the document nor to the jury's use of it. On appeal, however, it urges that the admission and use by the jury of the diagram constitutes reversible error. 45 Although the admission of the document as an exhibit abridged the terms of Rule 803(18), we cannot say, in view of Chrysler's failure to object, that the district court committed reversible error in this regard. Even assuming arguendo that the trial court erred, in the context of this case the error was harmless. Independent of the exhibit, there was testimony regarding the contents of the Calspan report, including the diagram in question. Counsel for the Dawsons extensively cross-examined one of Chrysler's experts about the tests diagrammed in the exhibit. In short, the exhibit was merely duplicative of the testimony. Cf. Ammar v. American Export Lines, Inc., 326 F.2d 955, 957 n. 2 (2d Cir.) (plaintiff's counsel's reading during closing argument of a physician's report that was not admitted into evidence held harmless error because the report said in substance what the doctor had stated on the stand), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 824, 85 S.Ct. 48, 13 L.Ed.2d 34 (1964). 46 For these reasons, the district court did not err in denying Chrysler's motion for a new trial.