Court Opinion

ID: 9615501
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:37:43.089703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:48.299258
License: Public Domain

EAGLES, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority. However, I write separately to express my uneasiness and disagreement with the extensive use of a witness’s deposition testimony to impeach the witness after the witness testifies in person, has been examined in person and has been excused.
Here, defendants used deposition testimony to impeach plaintiff’s expert witnesses after those same witnesses had been present in court, testified in person, and defendants had the opportunity to cross-examine them on the witness stand. Defendants agreed to excuse those witnesses and allowed the witnesses to leave the court*35room. Relying upon Rule 32(a) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, defendants then proceeded to read the witnesses’ deposition testimony into the record in order to impeach their live testimony. The depositions were read into evidence without the witnesses’ presence or ability to explain their previous deposition testimony. This practice smacks of trial by ambush. Use of deposition testimony without the deponent’s presence is technically allowed by N.C. R. Civ. P. 32 and N.C. R. Evid. 804. However, this practice impairs the fact-finder’s ability to perform its traditional role of sorting truth from fiction by judging witness credibility during live testimony at trial. Although the parties in this case behaved in strict compliance with the rules, I believe that use of a witness’s deposition testimony when that witness has been excused should be discouraged. The rules which appear to authorize this practice, N.C. R. Civ. P. 32 and N.C. R. Evid. 804, should be revisited by the General Assembly.