Court Opinion

ID: 9481200
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:11:04.414815+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:09.265534
License: Public Domain

FAGG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe the panel mistakenly finds plain error on a barren record, I respectfully dissent.
The panel correctly observes that Williams’s lawyer asked two doctors called by Williams for their opinions on medical causation; the district court erroneously excluded this testimony; the doctors’ opinions were not apparent from the questions asked; another doctor called by Williams had given unfavorable testimony on the issue of causation; and Williams’s lawyer did not make an offer of proof.
Based on this scenario, however, I disagree with the panel’s conclusion the district court’s rulings are a miscarriage of justice. Without knowing how the doctors would have answered the causation questions, there is no basis in the record for the panel’s holding the exclusionary rulings plainly affected the integrity of the trial. See Fed.R.Evid. 103(d). Plain error must be found on the record. United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 16, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 1046, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985). We are not permitted *1365to overlook the failure of Williams’s lawyer to preserve essential evidence by an offer of proof. Id.
Although the district court committed error, Williams must show his substantial rights have been prejudiced by the rulings. Fed.R.Evid. 103(d); Young v. Rabideau, 821 F.2d 373, 376 (7th Cir.) (party challenging exclusion of evidence has burden of showing exclusion was prejudicial), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 915, 108 S.Ct. 263, 98 L.Ed.2d 221 (1987); Tyler v. White, 811 F.2d 1204, 1207 (8th Cir.1987) (same). When the district court excluded Williams’s medical evidence, Williams’s lawyer had to make an offer of proof revealing the doctors’ answers. See Fed.R.Evid. 103(a)(2); United States v. Barta, 888 F.2d 1220, 1224 (8th Cir.1989). Because the lawyer failed to do so, this panel has no way of divining from the record whether the excluded testimony would be helpful or harmful to Williams. See Yost v. A.O. Smith Corp., 562 F.2d 592, 595 (8th Cir.1977). Short of resorting to a hypothetical record that is not before us, “there is no way in which the [panel] can see that the error ... amounts to plain error.” 21 C. Wright & K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5043, at 236 (1977).
I also disagree with the panel’s conclusion that “[t]he district court's repeated refusal to allow [Williams’s lawyer] to ask [the] witnesses their opinion [on medical causation] and [the court’s] refusal to allow [Williams’s lawyer] to rephrase the question in the form of a hypothetical denied [Williams] a fair opportunity to litigate his case.” Ante at 1362. The questions Williams’s lawyer put to the doctors were not artfully framed. Indeed, the district court believed Williams’s lawyer was asking the doctors to vouch for Williams’s version of the accident facts. Instead of explaining his purpose by an offer of proof, Williams’s lawyer persisted in asking the same questions. The district court finally cut off the line of questioning.
We have held the district court does not abuse its discretion in preventing questioning aimed at eliciting evidence already rejected “when its [admissibility] is not affirmatively demonstrated” by an offer of proof. Thompson v. Lillehei, 273 F.2d 376, 385 (8th Cir.1959). Nothing in the colloquy between the district court and counsel suggests Williams’s lawyer was prevented from making an offer of proof to show the pertinent responses to the questions already asked.
Thus, contrary to the panel’s view, Williams’s lawyer’s failure to make an offer of proof was the death knell to this appeal. See ante at 1362. The jury’s verdict should be sustained.