Opinion ID: 426287
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unavailable Witness.

Text: 86 CCOM asserts that a new trial should be granted because the trial court erred in prohibiting CCOM's counsel from arguing to the jurors that they should infer from Fuller's failure to call Hessmer that his testimony would have been unfavorable to Fuller. 30 Questions as to the propriety of comment by counsel in argument upon the failure to produce a witness rest largely in the discretion of the trial court, 31 but the court should not preclude such argument when the case presents a significant question on this point, United States v. Mahone, 537 F.2d 922, 928 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1025, 97 S.Ct. 646, 50 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976). Unless sufficiently prejudicial, the exclusion of permissible comment will not warrant the granting of a new trial. Mahone, 537 F.2d at 928. 87 According to the missing witness rule, when a party has it peculiarly within his power to produce witnesses whose testimony would elucidate the transaction, but chooses not to call them, an inference arises that the testimony, if produced, would be unfavorable. Id. at 926 (quoting Graves v. United States, 150 U.S. 118, 121, 14 S.Ct. 40, 41, 37 L.Ed. 1021 (1893)). Thus, before a party can properly argue to the jury the possibility of drawing such an inference from the absence of a witness, the party must establish that the missing witness was peculiarly within the adversary's power to produce by showing either that the witness is physically available only to the opponent or that the witness has the type of relationship with the opposing party that pragmatically renders his testimony unavailable to the opposing party. 88 CCOM contends that, as Hessmer was a former employee of Fuller, Hessmer was not equally available to CCOM despite the fact that Hessmer was subject to subpoena and CCOM listed Hessmer as one of its anticipated witnesses. An employee-employer relationship is such that  'where an employee who could give important testimony relative to issues in litigation is not present and his absence is unaccounted for by his employer, who is a party to the action, the presumption arises that the testimony of such employee would be unfavorable to his employer.'  Zuber v. Northern Pacific Railway Co., 246 Minn. 157, 74 N.W.2d 641, 649 (1956) (quoting Ellerman v. Skelly Oil Co., 227 Minn. 65, 70, 34 N.W.2d 251, 254 (1948)), see also Annot., In Argument of Civil Case, on Adversary's Failure to Call Employee as Witness, 68 A.L.R.2d 1072 (1959). Some courts qualify this rule in various ways. In Erie Railroad Co. v. Kane, 118 F. 223, 238-39 (6th Cir.1902), the Sixth Circuit ruled that it was error to instruct the jury that an inference unfavorable to a party to a civil suit might be drawn from his failure to place on the witness stand an employee who was present in court in obedience to a subpoena issued by the opposing party. The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, in Secondino v. New Haven Gas Co., 147 Conn. 672, 674, 165 A.2d 598, 600 (1960), indicated that no such inference should be drawn against the defendant until, in addition to meeting other requirements of the test, the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case. Finally, in Zuber, 74 N.W.2d at 649, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that no unfavorable inference could be drawn where the witness is no longer in the employ of the party to the litigation. 32 89 Here, Hessmer was physically available to both parties. His relationship with Fuller was very tenuous and perhaps unfriendly as Hessmer was asked to resign from the company for alleged misdeeds. Furthermore, at least with respect to Count II, CCOM failed to establish a prima facie case. Arguably, Fuller decided to avoid any possibility of unleashing potentially vicious testimony from a disgruntled former employee. 33 Furthermore, CCOM had led Fuller to believe it would call Hessmer as a witness. Perhaps the best solution would have been to permit both Fuller and CCOM to argue the matter to the jury, however, given the facts here, any error was not prejudicial. 90