Opinion ID: 307845
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence Relating to Trans Video Company and All State

Text: 31 Systems. 32 At the December 21 and 28, 1965 meetings of the Johnstown City Council, representatives of five concerns announced that they were interested in bidding. Two of these prospective bidders were not named at the meetings; the other three were Trans Video Company of Barnesboro, Pa., All State Cable Company of Ridgeway and Doylestown, Pa., and Johnstown Traction Company. 33 At trial, Kahn offered to show that neither All State nor Trans Video had a telephone listed under those names during 1965-67; and that All State did not operate a cable system in Doylestown. 7 Judge Motley excluded the evidence. Kahn now argues that the proof would have demonstrated that these two bidders did not exist, and that they were part of Tompkins' plot to extort money from Teleprompter. 34 We find no error in Judge Motley's ruling. Even assuming arguendo that failure of a company to have a phone number under its precise corporate name is probative of nonexistence, the other premises do not follow. First of all, there was no evidence to link this alleged sham up to Tompkins, who stated on the stand that he knew nothing of these two firms before the date of the bidding. Second, when the time for actual bidding, February 1, 1966, did arrive, each of the three companies made formal bids-Johnstown Traction's accompanied by a bid bond and All State's by a $10,000 check. In addition, C.A.T.V. Corporation of Pittsburgh submitted a formal bid. Finally, Kahn makes no claim that Johnstown Traction or the Pittsburgh firm did not exist. The possibility of the mayor's use of phony firms to blackmail Teleprompter is greatly lessened, if not negated, by the actual submission of bids by these firms and by the involvement of admittedly genuine corporations in the entire process. 35 In short, the evidence was not truly probative on the extortion issue, and even if probative, was clearly collateral. The trial court quite properly exercised its discretion in excluding it. See generally C. McCormick, Evidence Sec. 152 at 319-20 (1954); United States v. Bowe, 360 F.2d 1, 15 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 961, 87 S.Ct. 401, 17 L.Ed.2d 306 (1966). 36