Opinion ID: 563774
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sundry evidentiary rulings

Text: 17 We turn next to an assortment of evidentiary rulings protested, variously, by one party or another. 18
19 During the trial, the court accepted in evidence, over objection, the plea colloquy and criminal conviction of one Robert F. Mongillo for certain acts of mail and wire fraud. On appeal, Mongillo argues that the court erred in admitting the evidence because there was no sufficient foundation linking him to the Robert F. Mongillo who was involved in the criminal prosecution. The argument beggars credulity. 20 Conceptually, this challenge is governed by Fed.R.Evid. 104(b). 3 It is beyond dispute that [t]rial judges have wide discretion in deciding whether an adequate foundation has been laid for the admission of evidence. Real v. Hogan, 828 F.2d 58, 64 (1st Cir.1987). The Supreme Court has clearly articulated the process by which a trial court should examine the soundness of an evidentiary foundation: 21 In determining whether the [plaintiff] has introduced sufficient evidence to meet Rule 104(b), the trial court neither weighs credibility nor makes a finding that the [plaintiff] has proved the conditional fact by a preponderance of the evidence. The court simply examines all the evidence in the case and decides whether the jury could reasonably find the conditional fact ... by a preponderance of the evidence. 22 Huddleston v. United States, 485 U.S. 681, 690, 108 S.Ct. 1496, 1501, 99 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988); see also Onujiogu v. United States, 817 F.2d 3, 5 (1st Cir.1987). 23 In this case, a more than sufficient foundation was set in place. Prior to reading the plea colloquy into evidence, the plaintiffs presented portions of Mongillo's deposition. These extracts established that the Robert F. Mongillo sued herein was born on April 16, 1936; graduated from Boston College in 1958; and participated in a transaction involving Faneuil and the Veranda Beach resort circa 1983-1984. The identically named criminal defendant admitted in the plea colloquy to being 49 years old in January 1986, a 1958 graduate of Boston College, and a participant in a deal involving Faneuil and Veranda Beach during the 1983-1984 time frame. Given such strong identifying evidence, the contention that there was an insufficient foundation connecting one Mongillo to the other can only be described as an exercise in casuistry. The law is not so struthious as to compel a factfinder to ignore that which is perfectly obvious. See United States v. Ingraham, 832 F.2d 229, 240 (1st Cir.1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1009, 108 S.Ct. 1738, 100 L.Ed.2d 202 (1988). 24 Mongillo also urges that the evidence's probative value was overwhelmed by its unduly prejudicial effect. See Fed.R.Evid. 403 (Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice....). He asserts that the plaintiffs adduced enough evidence independent of his criminal conviction to show that he had committed fraud, thus rendering the introduction of his criminal conviction gratuitously excessive. We are unimpressed. While it is true that the plaintiffs offered other evidence indicating that Mongillo engaged in fraudulent acts, we do not find the admission of the conviction to be so unfairly cumulative as to require reversal. Rather, this evidence served to confirm what the other evidence merely suggested: that Mongillo in fact orchestrated the very scheme for which the plaintiffs were seeking money damages. 25 In any event, trials were never meant to be antiseptic affairs; it is only unfair prejudice, not prejudice per se, against which Rule 403 guards. See Onujiogu, 817 F.2d at 6. And the trial court's construction of the probative value/unfair prejudice balance, hammered out during the rough and tumble of the trial itself, is subject to substantial deference on appeal. See United States v. Hadfield, 918 F.2d 987, 994 (1st Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2062, 114 L.Ed.2d 466 (1991); see also Freeman v. Package Machinery Co., 865 F.2d 1331, 1340 (1st Cir.1988) (a trial court's application of Evidence Rule 403 should be disturbed only in extraordinarily compelling circumstances). There was no unfair prejudice or misuse of the trier's discretion in this instance. 26
27 On the issue of whether EWM Co. had reason to suspect that Mongillo might exceed his express authority as an agent, the magistrate permitted evidence that Mongillo's license had been suspended by the Connecticut Division of Insurance for sixty days in 1979. Over the plaintiffs' objections, however, he excluded many of the particulars of the event, e.g., facts showing that the 1979 suspension arose out of an incident in which Mongillo tried to deliver a forged bond. The court allowed evidence that EWM knew of the suspension, but refused to allow evidence that the firm paid a portion of the administrative fine. FRG contends that the excluded evidence should have been admitted under Evidence Rule 404(b) to show that EWM had ratified a forgery in the past, thus suggesting either an agency relationship in respect to the Western Surety bond or a likelihood that EWM Co. would ratify the Veranda Beach transaction. 28 Determining the admissibility of evidence under Rule 404(b) engages a two step analysis. 4 First, the trial court must ascertain whether the evidence has a special relevance in that it is offered not to show a defendant's evil inclination but rather to establish some material fact. See Hadfield, 918 F.2d at 994; United States v. Devin, 918 F.2d 280, 286 (1st Cir.1990). If the trial court finds sufficient relevance, the next step requires that it gauge probative weight against prejudicial effect pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 403. See, e.g., Devin, 918 F.2d at 286. If the evidence brings unwanted baggage, say, unfair prejudice or a cognizable risk of confusing the jury, and if the baggage's weight substantially overbalances any probative value, then the evidence must be excluded. United States v. Rodriguez-Estrada, 877 F.2d 153, 155 (1st Cir.1989). 29 The lower court excluded the proffered facts on the ground that they were unduly cumulative and, therefore, failed to satisfy the second prong of the test. Its statements also suggested, however, that the evidence lacked the necessary relevance to satisfy the first prong. Either way, we believe that the rulings were within the ambit of the trier's sound discretion. Given what had already been admitted, the facts in question would not have helped in any significant measure to establish the existence of an agency relationship in 1983-1984. 30 For example, to establish apparent authority, the plaintiffs had to show that EWM did something that caused them to believe that Mongillo was its authorized agent. See Sheinkopf v. Stone, 927 F.2d 1259, 1269 (1st Cir.1991). This evidence would not have helped. There was no proof that, at the time the plaintiffs dealt with Mongillo, they knew of EWM's purported ratification of Mongillo's prior malfeasance. There was likewise no proof that plaintiffs relied on any such show of support to conclude that the firm would stand behind Mongillo in the Veranda Beach matter, come what might. Nothing in the excluded evidence would have filled these gaps. 31 By the same token, to establish vicarious liability, it had to be shown that, with respect to the transaction in question, Mongillo was acting within the scope of his employment, meaning under Massachusetts law that he was motivated, at least in part, by a goal of serving his employer's interests. See Wang Laboratories, Inc. v. Business Incentives, Inc., 398 Mass. 854, 501 N.E.2d 1163, 1166 (1986). The excluded evidence provided no insight into any motivation on Mongillo's part to benefit EWM through the Veranda Beach deal; indeed, nothing in the excluded facts indicated that Mongillo, when he misbehaved in the 1970s, did so with the intention of enriching EWM. 32 In the federal system, a trial court has appreciable flexibility in admitting or excluding evidence on relevancy grounds. See United States v. Nazzaro, 889 F.2d 1158, 1168 (1st Cir.1989); Freeman, 865 F.2d at 1339. Under the circumstances of this case, the court's decision not to allow evidence of the subsidiary facts underlying the 1979 suspension cannot be faulted. 33
34 In the course of discovery, FRG propounded requests for admission of facts under Fed.R.Civ.P. 36(a). Responding on behalf of EWM Co. (of which he was an officer and part-owner), Mongillo refused to answer a number of the requests, invoking his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. At trial, FRG sought to have those requests, and Mongillo's responses, read to the jury so that the talesmen might draw an adverse inference against the corporation. The court ruled that the requests and responses could not be read because they were cumulative; the information sought through the requests had already been conclusively established in other ways. FRG argues that the court erred in excluding this evidence because, wholly apart from the information the requests sought to elicit, the mere fact that Mongillo was designated to answer the questions was relevant to prove the agency relationship between Mongillo and EWM and to establish the adverse inference. 35 These arguments are disingenuous. A review of the requests reveals that those in question dealt with Mongillo's role in the Veranda Beach transaction, not the relationship between Mongillo and EWM or the business of EWM Co. per se. 5 In other words, no one but Mongillo could usefully have responded. FRG's attempt to contrive some indicia of a far-flung agency relationship out of the fact that Mongillo was designated to address inquiries that were unanswerable by any other officer of the corporation is palpably unconvincing. 36 To be sure, when requests to admit are served on a corporate party, Fed.R.Civ.P. 36(a) does not expressly require them to be answered by the most knowledgeable person available. The rule does require, however, that the respondent make reasonable inquiry into the subject matter of the requests. See 8 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 2261 (1970) (a party may not give lack of information or knowledge as a reason for failing to admit or deny unless he states that he has made reasonable inquiry and that the information known or readily obtainable by him is insufficient to enable him to admit or deny). Here, Mongillo was the only officer of the corporation who could conceivably respond to these requests. Whether EWM Co. asked him to address them directly or to answer them indirectly by reacting informally to the reasonable inquiry of some other corporate officer seems to us a distinction without a difference. 37 There is also a second fallacy in FRG's argument. An individual's invocation of his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination is a personal decision. It cannot be imputed to a corporation. Since the privilege against self-incrimination is a purely personal one, it cannot be utilized by or on behalf of any organization, such as a corporation. United States v. White, 322 U.S. 694, 699, 64 S.Ct. 1248, 1251, 88 L.Ed. 1542 (1944). In a civil case, therefore, an individual's invocation of a personal privilege against self-incrimination cannot, without more, be held against his corporate employer in circumstances analogous to those at the bar. Thus, FRG's contention that Mongillo's exercise of his fifth amendment right should be interpreted adversely to EWM is unsupportable. 6 38 We have said enough. As a general proposition, we review rulings excluding evidence in civil cases by reference to an abuse-of-discretion benchmark. See, e.g., Knowlton v. Deseret Medical, Inc., 930 F.2d 116, 124 (1st Cir.1991); Freeman, 865 F.2d at 1339. In these circumstances, we discern no abuse. 39