Opinion ID: 1864066
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Expert Testimony as to Misrepresentation of Law.

Text: The first issue we consider is whether the trial court erred in refusing to permit an expert witness to testify for the Kruses concerning claimed legal misrepresentations by the bank. It was the Kruses' intention to have this witness testify that, if the representatives of the bank had in fact made certain representations of law concerning the Kruses' liability for the Graham judgment or the legal effect of that judgment on the Kruses' property, such representations were false. The trial court refused to receive this testimony. It indicated that the matter could best be handled by the court instructing the jury as to the controlling legal principles and permitting the jury to decide whether a misrepresentation had occurred based upon such instructions. Although it is frequently stated that witnesses should not be permitted to give their opinion on questions of domestic law, see, e.g., Miller v. Bonar, 337 N.W.2d 523, 529 (Iowa 1983); 31 Am.Jur.2d Expert and Opinion Evidence § 69 (1967), there are exceptions to this rule. As presented in the committee comment accompanying Iowa Rule of Evidence 704, this limitation extends only to opinions of law which go the ultimate issue in the case. We think the same rule extends to opinions of law which relate to a rule of decision to be directly applied by the court or jury in determining the case, such as the elements of the cause of action. The rule prohibiting legal opinions as to domestic law does not always apply, however, in situations where the legal issue is raised in such a manner that it becomes an operative fact to be proven within the case rather than a rule of decision for deciding the case. In Martinson Manufacturing Co. v. Seery, 351 N.W.2d 772, 778 (Iowa 1984), we recognized that within the case within a case context of a legal malpractice action it may be an issue of fact as to whether a lawyer's assessment of a legal proposition is correct. Arguably, the issue of the bank's misrepresentation of legal rights in the present case is presented within such a case within a case context. While we believe it would have been permissible for the district court in its discretion to have permitted the expert testimony as bearing on an issue of operative fact, it was not error to decline to do so. We have frequently stated that a trial court is entitled to exercise a broad discretion in the admissibility of expert testimony. E.g., Aller v. Rodgers Mach. Mfg. Co., 268 N.W.2d 830, 840 (Iowa 1978). The legal issues which bore upon the accuracy of the alleged representations in the present case were simple, straightforward and scarcely subject to dispute. Consequently, we believe that the trial court's decision to handle the matter by means of instructions to the jury was a permissible course of action and did not prejudice the Kruses' rights.