Opinion ID: 30171
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of OIA Correspondence Log

Text: 15 Wilson argues that the district court improperly considered Government Exhibit 1, the new correspondence log containing an entry for the November 24 letter, at the remand hearing. He contends that the Government should be estopped from using the log now because the Government did not present this document to the district court when it first considered his motion for reconsideration. 16 We remanded this case to the district court with instructions to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the letter was sent. Wilson I, 249 F.3d at 372-73. On remand, the district court is not limited to the record before it and retains the discretion to admit additional evidence, United States v. Bell Petroleum Servs., Inc., 64 F.3d 202, 204 (5th Cir.1995) (citations omitted), unless bound by the appellate court's specific mandate to restrict its review in some manner. See Becerra, 155 F.3d at 754. By recognizing a disputed issue of fact and remanding the case for an evidentiary hearing, the court's prior opinion obviously contemplated the taking of additional evidence. See Wilson I, 249 F.3d at 372-73. Because the Government claims that the log entry for the November letter has always existed, the court is puzzled by the Government's failure to produce this log in response to Wilson's motion to dismiss or motion for reconsideration. Nevertheless, given the purpose of the evidentiary hearing, the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the Government to present the evidence at its disposal to refute Wilson's claims that the letter was never actually sent. 17 C. District Court's Factual Finding That the Government Sent a Formal Request for Legal Assistance to the Bahamian Government 18 Wilson argues that the district court clearly erred in finding that the Government had established by a preponderance of the evidence that the November 24, 1993 letter was sent. He directs this court to numerous deficiencies in the Government's proof: (1) the Government did not produce Federal Express or other relevant records to prove the letter was sent, despite the fact that such documentary evidence would have been readily available; (2) the Government did not call as witnesses the attorney who drafted and signed the letter, the secretary who would have typed and mailed it, or the data entry person who logged in the correspondence, even though they were still Government employees when the hearing on remand took place; (3) there was no Federal Express number, ID number, OIA case number, or other identifying information on the disputed letter, despite routine practice to include such information on all outgoing correspondence; (4) internal government documents existed that questioned whether the letter was sent out by OIA's correspondence unit, that exposed the Government's failure to obtain proof of mailing in response to its own inquiries, and that indicated it was never received by the Bahamian Government; (5) the Government had the opportunity and incentive to produce the new correspondence log earlier in the proceedings and failed to do so, yet managed to provide it at the remand hearing, after OIA's computer system upgrade had taken place and certain identifying information concerning log entries was changed in the conversion; and (6) the Government's sole witness at the hearing on remand was a paralegal who did not work on Wilson's case until 1996, approximately three years after the letter was allegedly sent, who had no personal knowledge as to whether the disputed letter was actually mailed, who only testified as to routine correspondence procedures, and who admitted that those procedures were flexible and were not always followed by OIA staff. Thus, Wilson argues that the Government failed to prove that the MLAT request was sent to the Bahamas in November of 1993 by a preponderance of the evidence. The Government, without explanation, failed to respond to Wilson's argument that it did not sustain its burden at the evidentiary hearing. 12 19 This court must determine whether the district court committed clear error when it found that the Government proved its case by a preponderance of the evidence. See Meador, 138 F.3d at 991. 20 The burden of showing something by a preponderance of the evidence ... simply requires the trier of fact to believe that the existence of a fact is more probable than its nonexistence before [he] may find in favor of the party who has the burden to persuade the [judge] of the fact's existence. Concrete Pipe & Products of Cal., Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern Cal., 508 U.S. 602, 622, 113 S.Ct. 2264, 124 L.Ed.2d 539 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted). In other words, the preponderance standard goes to how convincing the evidence in favor of a fact must be in comparison with the evidence against it before that fact may be found.... See Greenwich Collieries v. Director, OWCP, 990 F.2d 730, 736 (C.A.3 1993) (A preponderance of the evidence is ... [e]vidence which is ... more convincing than the evidence ... offered in opposition to it ...) (internal quotation marks omitted), aff'd, 512 U.S. 267, 114 S.Ct. 2251, 129 L.Ed.2d 221 (1994).... [W]hen the evidence is evenly balanced, the [party with the burden of persuasion] must lose, Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs v. Greenwich Collieries, 512 U.S. 267, 281, 114 S.Ct. 2251, 129 L.Ed.2d 221 (1994). 21 Metropolitan Stevedore Co. v. Rambo, 521 U.S. 121, 137 n. 9, 117 S.Ct. 1953, 138 L.Ed.2d 327 (1997). A reviewing court, however, will not reverse a lower court's finding of fact simply because [it] `would have decided the case differently.' Easley v. Cromartie, 532 U.S. 234, 242, 121 S.Ct. 1452, 149 L.Ed.2d 430 (2001) (quoting Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985)). Instead, the court must ask whether `on the entire evidence,' it is `left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.' Id. (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948)). 22 A review of the entire evidence presented to the district court leaves us with the definite and firm conviction that the court was mistaken in its finding that the Government proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the letter was sent. See id. at 242-43, 121 S.Ct. 1452. The district court's order denying Wilson's motion for reconsideration relied in part upon a presumption of mailing derived from the testimony of Lanyi. The court stated, [t]he Fifth Circuit `has long accepted proof of the normal practice of the use of the mails by means of circumstantial evidence, without requiring the testimony of a business' mail clerk, ostensibly the only person who could testify directly to the business practice of mailing and receiving letters.' Order of July 26, 2001, RE 5 (citations omitted). The court found that Lanyi qualified as a person familiar with OIA's routine correspondence practices, and that her testimony was therefore sufficient to establish the letter was sent according to routine practices. 23 The district court failed to recognize an important distinction between Lanyi's testimony and that which is normally accepted as adequate to establish routine business practices. Lanyi was a paralegal, not a secretary or docketing clerk, and she testified that she was not responsible for drafting or mailing MLAT requests or for making correspondence log entries. Aside from her personal inexperience with executing OIA correspondence procedures, her testimony demonstrates that there really were no consistent procedures or practices at OIA during the time in question. Furthermore, though Lanyi worked at OIA in November of 1993 when the MLAT was allegedly mailed to the Bahamas, she was not assigned to work on the Wilson case until approximately four years later. She testified, I was not there at that time. So, I do not know what the procedures were for Ms. Gaynus and her secretary in what they sent out.... There would not be a consistency [in correspondence procedures] of the kind that you describe. Tr. of Remand Hr'g at 89 (emphasis added). This demonstrates that Lanyi was not a competent witness qualified to give evidence as to the correspondence procedures used by the OIA team responsible for the November letter. Accordingly, we find that there was insufficient evidence before the trial court to give rise to a presumption that the letter was mailed. See Beck v. Somerset Technologies, Inc., 882 F.2d 993, 996 (5th Cir.1989) (holding that a copy of the properly addressed letter, a certified mail receipt and signed return post cards was sufficient to raise the presumption that a letter was received in the due course of the mail). 24 Because the presumption of mailing does not arise in this case, 13 we must review the entire evidence to determine whether the district court's factual finding that the letter was sent constituted clear error. What particularly informs this court on review is that the Government failed to meet proof with proof in every step of the litigation here: first in its response to Wilson's motion for reconsideration, next at the remand hearing, and now here on Wilson's appeal of the district court's ruling in its favor. In light of the persuasive evidence Wilson proffered in support of his position that the MLAT request was never mailed to the Bahamas, the Government's burden of proving that it was more likely than not that OIA mailed the November letter required more than circumstantial evidence of questionable origin and the testimony of an OIA employee wholly without personal knowledge relevant to the MLAT request at issue here. Whenever circumstantial evidence is relied upon to prove a fact, circumstances must be proved and cannot be presumed. Montgomery-Ward & Co. v. Sewell, 205 F.2d 463, 467 (5th Cir.1953). As described in detail above, Lanyi's testimony was often either contradictory (e.g., the circumstances surrounding her allegedly mistaken transmission of the wrong page of the old correspondence log in 1997), displayed a lack of personal knowledge (e.g., her testimony about office correspondence procedures, when she was never responsible for such matters in her position as a paralegal specialist and when she admitted total unfamiliarity with the procedures of the OIA attorney and secretary responsible for the November MLAT), or was wholly without probative value (e.g., her lay opinion that OIA's computer software was tamper-proof). This testimony does not prove the circumstances surrounding the mailing of the letter and the subsequent correspondence log entry as required by Sewell. Even if we consider the evidence as equally balanced, the Government still must lose. See Rambo, 521 U.S. at 137 n. 9, 117 S.Ct. 1953 (quoting Greenwich Collieries, 512 U.S. at 281, 114 S.Ct. 2251). 25 In addition, this circuit has long recognized that a party's failure to call available witnesses or produce evidence that would clarify or explain disputed factual issues can give rise to a presumption that the evidence, if produced, would be unfavorable to that party. See, e.g., Streber v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue, 138 F.3d 216, 221-22 (5th Cir.1998); United States v. Lehmann, 613 F.2d 130, 135 (5th Cir.1980); United States v. Chapman, 435 F.2d 1245, 1247 (5th Cir.1970); United States v. Johnson, 288 F.2d 40, 45 (5th Cir.1961). The court can only draw a negative inference when the missing witness has information peculiarly within his knowledge, i.e., a party need not call a witness if her testimony would be cumulative, and the strength of the inference to be drawn from the witness's absence varies with the particular facts of each case. 14 Streber, 138 F.3d at 221-22 (citations omitted). In Coyle Lines, Inc. v. United States, 195 F.2d 737, 741-42 (5th Cir.1952), this court found a particularly strong adverse inference from the Government's failure to call employee-witnesses who would have supplied direct testimony regarding the subject matter of the lawsuit. 26 The present case presents a similar situation to that addressed by this court over fifty years ago in Coyle Lines. The Government failed to call a single witness with actual personal knowledge of the November 1993 letter or its subsequent entry into the OIA correspondence tracking system, though all three of the Government employees involved in 1993 were still in the Government's employ at the time of the hearing on remand. The OIA attorney and secretary who allegedly drafted and mailed the letter would have testified to matters peculiarly within [their] knowledge, and their testimony would have been directly relevant to the Government's case. Therefore, the Government's failure to call its own employees as witnesses when they had crucial information about this dispositive issue of fact gives rise to a particularly strong adverse inference against it. See Coyle Lines, 195 F.2d at 742. 27 The district court's error is highlighted by the Government's approach before this court. Its appellate brief completely ignores Wilson's argument that the Government failed to meet the preponderance standard, and the Government offers neither argument nor legal authority supporting the district court's finding that the letter was sent. Perhaps the Government found it a difficult argument to make. Nevertheless, the Government's complete failure to dispute any of the factual errors Wilson raises here or to otherwise defend the district court's ruling — in addition to the Government's failure to attempt to subpoena Federal Express records or to call any one of the potential witnesses who had personal knowledge of the November 1993 letter in the proceedings below — appears to us to be an implicit acknowledgment that the Government could not, and did not, sustain its burden. Considering the lack of any direct evidence supporting the Government's allegation that the letter was sent, the questionable circumstances surrounding the Government's tardy production of the correspondence log, Lanyi's lack of capacity to testify regarding the mailing of the November 1993 MLAT, and the adverse inference we draw from the Government's failure to call available and pertinent witnesses, we hold that the district court clearly erred in finding that the Government proved that the MLAT letter was sent by a preponderance of the evidence. The trial court therefore improperly tolled the five-year statute of limitations on Wilson's offenses.