Court Opinion

ID: 9549880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:25:50.094817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:00.438909
License: Public Domain

GOLDEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent to part IV entitled, “Sufficiency of the Evidence,” and part V entitled, “Limitation of Cross-Examination of Litigant Ristau,” of the majority opinion.
Under the majority’s sufficiency-of-the-evidence analysis in part IV of the opinion, it is said that this court considers the trial court’s decision “as it analyzed the Exhibit 4 memorandum and its effect and then made evidentiary rulings on discussions from which the memorandum resulted.” The majority then states that the “disposi-tive question is whether the trial court was required to conclude that the Exhibit 4 memorandum constituted not only a rescission of UNC Resources benefit program but also constituted a rescission of rights provided by the actual employer, UNC Teton.” In UNC Teton’s failure to provide any written evidence of termination of benefits and rights, other than Exhibit 4, the majority finds a factual basis for the trial court’s decision that Exhibit 4 not only did not terminate UNC Teton’s benefits, but also provided “evidentiary suggestion that those benefits would be continued” until UNC Teton actually rescinded them. According to the majority, Exhibit 4 was not ambiguous.
This conclusion, however, is at odds with that recognized by the majority in its part V discussion of the trial court’s erroneous limitation of UNC Teton’s cross-examination of Ristau. As the majority correctly notes, the trial court erroneously restricted UNC Teton’s cross-examination of party Ristau to support UNC Teton’s thesis that Exhibit 4 rescinded not only UNC Resources wage continuation benefits, but also UNC Teton’s wage continuation benefits. This error cannot be designated as harmless. Had UNC Teton been allowed to fully cross-examine Mr. Ristau, the evidence would have shown: (1) on or about September 11 or 12, 1983, a day or two before Exhibit 4 was published, Ristau attended a meeting with Keith Cunningham II and Dan Hall in which they discussed UNC Teton’s termination pay policies and then decided to discontinue termination pay practices at UNC Teton; and (2) Ristau was aware UNC Teton had discontinued all termination pay policies applicable to its employees. Appellees’ objections to UNC Teton’s attempted cross-examination of Mr. Ristau were erroneously sustained on the basis of the parol evidence rules. Exhibit 4 was not evidence of a contract; rather, it was evidence of a fact, i.e., that UNC Teton did not discontinue its termination pay policy. The contract itself, if it existed, was to be found in UNC Teton’s personnel manual, which was only referred to in Exhibit 4. Exhibit 4, which is used as evidence of a fact rather than as evidence of a contract, may be susceptible of explanation by extrinsic circumstances or facts. Kinser v. Elkadi, 674 S.W.2d 226, 234 (Mo.App.1984). UNC Teton was prejudiced by the trial court’s erroneous restriction of its request to cross-examine Mr. Ristau; it should have been allowed to offer evidence to contradict the appellees’ contention that UNC Teton did not discontinue its termination pay policy.
I would reverse and remand for a new trial at which UNC would have full opportunity to examine Mr. Ristau.