Opinion ID: 878033
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: reasons given for the inadmissibility of the evidence are illusory:

Text: Why must the government investigation and political contribution evidence not reach the eyes and ears of the jury? The majority lists several reasons, and states in essence as to each that the jury was allowed to speculate with no evidentiary foundation, and therefore its conclusions are unfounded. I believe, however, that sufficient evidence was presented for the jury to fit the pieces together and reach its verdict assessing exemplary damages against Goodyear. I discuss each of the reasons listed by the majority, which are illusory at best. What is so important, so vital in Mr. Malek's testimony that the majority orders a new trial and evidence to be excluded from the second trial? Malek, a member of the Committee to Re-elect the President, testified, according to the majority's summary, that he had no knowledge of situations in which proceedings before any department or agency were interfered with, influence, or obstructed. Assuming the truth of this statement, it proves only that Mr. Malek had no knowledge of attempts by re-election committee members on behalf of Goodyear or other contributors, to influence government proceedings then pending. Malek's testimony does not exonerate the entire re-election committee, it does not exonerate the officials of the Department of Transportation, and it certainly does not exonerate the Goodyear officials. On its face, and considered in an evidentiary vacuum, Malek's testimony establishes nothing for or against plaintiff. But when considered with other testimony and evidence admitted at trial, Malek's testimony was not irrelevant. The jury was entitled to conclude, based on all the evidence, that Malek's testimony before the Ervin Committee was simply another effort to cover up and therefore should be given no weight. Or, alternatively, if the jury believed Malek's testimony before the Ervin Committee, the jury was entitled to conclude that Malek was walking through those times wearing a blindfolder and earplugs. And now to the reasons given for the inadmissibility of the governmental investigation and political contribution evidence. First, the majority says the jury was impermissibly allowed to speculate on the K-rim wheel investigation. Just what speculation was permitted of the jury, the majority doesn't say. But the majority says that speculation on the investigation was impermissible because Goodyear had voluntarily discontinued the manufacture of the K-rim wheels three years before the investigation and because at the time of the investigation the government didn't have the authority to order a wheel recall. This reasoning is baffling and misses the point. Voluntary discontinuing production of an item does not establish that the item already in the hands of the public was not defective and dangerous. Nor does the presence or absence of power to recall a product establish that the product already in the hands of the public was not defective. In fact, discontinuance or production may have been motivated by the conclusion that the product was both defective and dangerous to the public. Nor does the presence or absence of governmental power to recall defective products bear on Goodyear's motives in influencing a favorable governmental decision on the investigation. The undeniable fact is that the government did have the authority to investigate product defects and to require the manufacturer to notify the consumers who had come into possession of those products by the distributing efforts of the manufacturer. Here the situation is that the Department of Transportation did not order a notification campaign and in fact closed the investigation shortly after the re-election of the President. The totality of the evidence supported a jury inference that the investigation was closed because the campaign contributions had their intended effect. Second, in concluding that the evidence impermissibly allowed the jury to surmise, with no evidentiary support, that there was a White House Commitment before Goodyear made its contribution, the opinion relies entirely on the testimony of Malek before the Ervin Committee to establish this fact. (Emphasis added.) The Malek memorandum, however, was not offered to prove a pre-existing commitment from the White House to grant political favors to contributors. The memorandum spoke for itself: it simply suggested that the re-election functionaries were out to politicize the executive branch of government by using the enormous influence of governmental favors as the carrot. It is odd indeed that although the majority relies entirely on the Malek memorandum as the impermissible evidence by which all the evidence was to be measured, not once does the majority discuss this evidentiary piece of evidence other than the reference to it in quoting from the opening statement of plaintiff's counsel. The majority overlooks the fact that the essential question at all times was whether Goodyear made political contributions with an expectation of reaping favorable governmental action on issues close to Goodyear's pocket-book. It is not important whether the governmental officials, or those claiming to have the power to influence governmental decisions, committed themselves before or after the contributions. The motives and actions of the Goodyear officials were on trial, and the motives and actions could only be demonstrated by proof of governmental complicity. With Goodyear's actions as the focal point I have no doubt that the jury had before it a strong circumstantial case that Goodyear expected to reap handsome returns from favorable governmental action on the multi-rim wheel investigation. Who knows, had the investigation not been closed after President Nixon's re-election, possibly the very tire rim that exploded into Dennis Kuiper's head would not then have been in use. Although evidence of attempts to influence an investigation by political contributions would be sufficient by itself for the jury to consider exemplary damages, here the plaintiff could only get the picture before the jury by revealing to the jury what the post-Watergate break-in investigation evidence disclosed. It was only through this evidence that the jury would have a more complete picture of what Goodyear had attempted to accomplish and in fact accomplished through its political contributions. The third reason given for the inadmissibility of the political contributions and investigation evidence is that the jury was allowed to speculate from the evidence that unknown persons in the White House knew of and could attend to Goodyear's needs before the Department of Transportation. The majority states that a jury conclusion to this effect would be wholly without foundation, but the fact is that the majority's statement is wholly without foundation. Only one fitted with blindfolders and earplugs could conclude that the Department of Transportation's decision to close the K-rim wheel investigation did not have direct or indirect White House influence. Aside from the majority's ignoring the political realities, the reason assigned for excluding the evidence misses the point. The evidence against Goodyear was admissible regardless of whether it could be proved that specific White House personnel could accomplish Goodyear's objectives in the investigations pending before the Department of Transportation. The evidence certainly tended to prove Goodyear's ulterior motives in making its political contributions, and it is, after all, Goodyear's motives and conduct that form the basis for the jury to consider an award of exemplary damages. Whether or not Goodyear was successful in its efforts to influence government conduct by its political contributions is not necessary to an award of exemplary damages against Goodyear; but the evidence of Goodyear's success gave to the jury a more complete picture of the magnitude of the involvement and the harm created by the collusion of big business and big government. The evidence without question permitted a jury inference that people in high places were looking out for the interests of Goodyear. Goodyear knew how strongly the government was focusing on the serious problems that the wheel rims posed for the public, and Goodyear's own people estimated a possible 145 million dollar cost to Goodyear. But then the Goodyear people went to work. The evidence set forth by Justices Morrison and Sheehy, and that I have repeated in a different format in this dissent, surely gives rise to an inference that someone beyond the Department of Transportation influenced its decision to close the multi-piece wheel investigation. A serious safety problem is hardly handled properly from the standpoint of either the government or the public, when the government makes the decision to close the investigation before the safety problems become too widely publicized. Fifth and finally, the majority declares that the evidence is inadmissible because it permitted the jury to improperly speculate that Andrew Detrick closed the K-rim investigation differently than those closed by his predecessors. If there is evidence to suggest that Detrick followed standard operating procedures, and that Detrick was not influenced by improper motives, the majority do not suggest what it is. The evidence suggests, and the jury was entitled to believe, that improper political influence was the motivating factor behind the closure of the multi-piece wheel investigation. Ample evidence exists in the record for the jury's assessment of exemplary damages against Goodyear. I would affirm the judgment.