Court Opinion

ID: 9575364
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:13:19.422989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:09.137239
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because the law does not require a new trial.
Division 2 of the majority opinion addresses the denial of appellant’s motion in limine to preclude as not pertinent defense counsel’s revealing to the jury that the suit was not filed until immediately prior to the running of the statute of limitation. Appellant argues that this is not relevant to liability inasmuch as the statute of limitation was not affirmatively pled as a defense, and since it was unavailable *290plaintiff was forced to defend against a false issue.
The issue, initiated by plaintiff, must be considered in the particular context of this case. At the beginning of trial, when the court heard argument on plaintiff’s written motion in limine, the plaintiff expanded his requests orally to seek the exclusion of additional matters. As to this matter, plaintiff’s counsel stated: “Your honor, we filed this case two years after the wreck and just before the statute ran. I’ve had that come up in opening statements before. That’s not pertinent to any issue.” Defense counsel responded that it was a pertinent issue but stated: “I may not bring it up in the opening statement but it may well come out. It may come out in the cross-examination and certainly goes to the credibility of witnesses.” The court denied the motion on this basis, plaintiff not having offered any specific authority supporting the argument that it was not material. Witness credibility, of course, is to be decided by the jury. OCGA § 24-9-80. Defendants did not mention the subject in their opening statement, which followed that of plaintiff.
Plaintiff, on the other hand, introduced the subject to the jury in his opening statement: “There’s also going to be some talk about, we’ve heard, about the fact that this suit was not filed until almost two years after the wreck. That’s my fault, partially and Turner’s, partially. If Turner went to one lawyer and then later on came to us and after he came to us we were busy and we fiddled around and it took a while to file the suit, it has nothing to do with this case because the evidence will be clear, immediately after this wreck happened Mr. Turner sought to find out what happened and did find out what happened.”
The fact was not evidenced during the course of the trial in cross-examination or otherwise. Thus, the mention of it by defendant in closing argument merely countered the explanation of a fact disclosed by plaintiff. Moreover, plaintiff raised no objection to this portion of defendant’s closing argument. Instead, in his own subsequent final closing argument, he brought up again the fact of when suit was filed.
Even assuming that plaintiff, by himself calling attention to and explaining the time delay in opening statement, did not open the door for the comments by defense counsel in closing argument, denying the motion and allowing defendants to pursue the matter if they chose to was not error.
Liability was hotly contested, the focus of which was “who ran the red light?” Both sides produced eyewitnesses with opposed versions of what transpired at the intersection. Defendants contended that the credibility of several of appellant’s eyewitnesses was affected by the length of time it had taken them to come forward and relate their recollections of what had occurred. The delay in filing suit arguably supported these contentions. See the reasoning expressed in *291the analogous case of McBride & Co. v. Macon Telegraph &c. Co., 102 Ga. 422, 425 (3) (30 SE 999) (1897). See also Adkins v. Flagg, 147 Ga. 136 (2a) (93 SE 92) (1917), in which it was held: “Counsel should have ample latitude to argue what has transpired in a case from its inception to its conclusion, and the conduct of the party or his counsel with respect to the case is the subject of legitimate comment, and the range of such comment is necessarily in the discretion of the trial judge; and unless it can be shown that such discretion has been abused and some positive injury done by the remarks of counsel, the discretion of the trial judge will not be controlled. [Cits.]”
Decided November 19, 1991
Reconsideration denied December 19, 1991
Butler, Wooten, Overby & Cheeley, James E. Butler, Jr., Charles F. Overby, Ashenden & Boren, Thomas J. Ashenden, for appellants.
Carter & Ansley, Tommy T. Holland, Anthony J. McGinley, for appellees.
No reversible error is shown.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Sognier and Judge Andrews join in this dissent.