Opinion ID: 756659
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exclusion of CHRO Finding

Text: 12 Brown argues first that findings of the EEOC or equivalent state agencies must, as a matter of law, be admitted in subsequent trials. We disagree. [U]nless the sources of information or other circumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness, Fed.R.Evid. 803(8)(C), such findings fall within the public records exception to the hearsay rule, see id. (factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority granted by law); Chandler v. Roudebush, 425 U.S. 840, 863 n. 39, 96 S.Ct. 1949, 48 L.Ed.2d 416 (1976). Generally, however, the fact that evidence is within an exception to the hearsay rule does not by itself make it admissible per se. The district court generally has discretion to exclude such hearsay on other grounds, such as where the evidence's probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. See Fed.R.Evid. 403; see also Beech Aircraft Corp. v. Rainey, 488 U.S. 153, 167-68, 109 S.Ct. 439, 102 L.Ed.2d 445 (1988) (observing that a trial judge has the discretion, and indeed the obligation, to exclude an entire report or portions thereof ... that she determines to be untrustworthy and that the Federal Rules, such as those dealing with relevance and prejudice, provide the court with additional means of scrutinizing reports excepted from the hearsay rule under 803(8)(C)). Thus, in City of New York v. Pullman Inc., 662 F.2d 910, 915 (2d Cir.1981), we affirmed the exclusion of a federal agency's report. We held that, even if the report were admissible under Rule 803(8)(C), the district court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the report should be excluded under Fed .R.Evid. 403 because the likelihood that it would confuse the jury and protract the proceedings outweighed its probative value. Id. 13 Brown does not quarrel with this general framework, arguing instead that the probative value of EEOC or state-agency findings necessarily outweighs any danger of unfair prejudice. In support of this proposition, it relies on decisions of the Fifth and Ninth Circuits, which hold that it is reversible error for the district court to exclude an EEOC probable cause determination from a Title VII trial. Heyne v. Caruso, 69 F.3d 1475, 1483 (9th Cir.1995); accord Smith v. Universal Servs., Inc., 454 F.2d 154, 156-58 (5th Cir.1972) (in banc). 14 These cases do not persuade us that EEOC or state-agency determinations must be admitted categorically. First, insofar as the Fifth and Ninth Circuits have adopted a rule of per se admissibility, they are in the minority. Most circuits that have considered the issue have left the question of whether to admit EEOC or state-agency findings to the sound discretion of the district court. See, e.g., Hall v. Western Prod. Co., 988 F.2d 1050, 1057-58 (10th Cir.1993); Barfield v. Orange Cty., 911 F.2d 644, 650-51 (11th Cir.1990); Johnson v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc., 734 F.2d 1304, 1309 (8th Cir.1984); McCluney v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., 728 F.2d 924, 929-30 (7th Cir.1984); Walton v. Eaton Corp., 563 F.2d 66, 75 & n. 12 (3d Cir.1977) (in banc). 3 15 Second, we adopt the majority approach because, as the Eighth Circuit noted in Johnson, employment-agency determinations are not homogeneous products; they vary greatly in quality and factual detail. 734 F.2d at 1309. The party against whom such a determination is admitted must attempt to expose the weaknesses of the report, see id., an effort that may well confuse or mislead the jury and result in an undue waste of time. See Fed.R.Evid. 403. We believe that the district court is in the best position to consider the quality of the report, its potential impact on the jury, and the likelihood that the trial will deteriorate into a protracted and unproductive struggle over how the evidence admitted at trial compared to the evidence considered by the agency. See Denny v. Hutchinson Sales Corp., 649 F.2d 816, 821-22 (10th Cir.1981). 16 Applying this standard, we see no abuse in the present case. Judge Goettel gave two reasons for excluding the CHRO determination: the evidence Paolitto introduced at trial undercut many of the CHRO's factual findings and Brown had a full opportunity to present to the jury all the evidence it had submitted to the CHRO. These were legitimate reasons to exclude the CHRO determination. See Hall, 988 F.2d at 1058 (district court did not abuse discretion in excluding state agency report where all the evidentiary matter before the [state agency] could be presented to the jury and, thus, sole purpose of admitting report would be to suggest to the jury that it should reach the same conclusion as agency) (internal quotations omitted); Denny, 649 F.2d at 822 (agency finding has low probative value where jury presented with substantial admissible evidence on the matter). 17 Brown next argues that, even if the CHRO findings were not admissible per se, they should have been admitted once Paolitto opened the door by introducing evidence suggesting that Cozza changed his hiring practices only in response to Paolitto's CHRO filing and by challenging the sufficiency of the CHRO investigation. We again disagree. 18 Opening the door to evidence that has previously been excluded gives the trial court discretion to permit a party to introduce otherwise inadmissible evidence on an issue (a) when the opposing party has introduced inadmissible evidence on the same issue, and (b) when it is needed to rebut a false impression that may have resulted from the opposing party's evidence. United States v. Rosa, 11 F.3d 315, 335 (2d Cir.1993). Judge Goettel acted within his discretion. In response to the claim that Cozza's 1989 hires were attempts to cover up past discrimination, Judge Goettel allowed Brown to inform the jury that, at the time Cozza made the hiring decisions in question, the CHRO charge was no longer pending. This ruling allowed Brown to rebut the claim that Cozza had hired older workers only because Brown was being investigated for possible age discrimination by the CHRO. In response to Paolitto's challenge to the quality of the CHRO investigation, Judge Goettel allowed Cozza to testify as to the information that the CHRO considered. Judge Goettel might well have been within his discretion in admitting the CHRO determination in these circumstances. However, we see no abuse of discretion in his more limited ruling, which avoided the prolonged inquiries into the reliability of the CHRO's administrative finding--a matter that was, in any event, of limited probative importance. 19 Because Brown sought to admit the CHRO's investigative file only as a foundation for the introduction of the CHRO's ultimate finding of no probable cause, the district court did not err in excluding the file itself. Moreover, because the court allowed Brown to introduce any evidence in that file so long as it was otherwise admissible, Brown was not prejudiced by the exclusion of the file as a whole. See Gillin v. Federal Paper Bd. Co., 479 F.2d 97, 99-100 (2d Cir.1973); accord Smith v. Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., 877 F.2d 1106, 1113 (1st Cir.1989).