Court Opinion

ID: 9701098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:05:04.943967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:00:42.410899
License: Public Domain

Grimes, J.,
dissenting: In my view the intentionally false testimony of an expert who has been sought out, hired and presented as a witness should be chargeable to the party who proffers his testimony. As long ago as 1843, it was held that a principal is chargeable with the fraud of his agent, even though he did not commission the fraud. Concord Bank v. Gregg, 14 N. H. 331. See also, Saidel v. Society, 84 N. H. 232; 37 Am. Jur. 2d, Fraud and Deceit, s. 311-319. While this type of expert witness may not be the agent of the party in the true sense, the same policy considerations should apply in that as between two innocent persons the burden of misconduct of a third should fall upon him who placed the third person in the position to commit the wrong. Also, the party proffering the testimony of such an expert has as much right to insist that he tell the truth as a principal has to insist that his agent not act fraudulently, and the actual ability to control is often no greater in one case than the other.
The expert witness of the type here involved is in a very different relationship to the party than an ordinary witness who, without being engaged for the purpose of testifying, is in possession of information relating to the case to be tried.
We are dealing here not only with what effect newly discovered *438evidence would have at a new trial but with the fact that the jury was permitted to hear and consider testimony from two hired witnesses on a “signficant issue” which has now been found to have been fraudulent. To deny a new trial unless the plaintiff can prove by a preponderence of evidence that a different result would probably be reached at a new trial seems unrealistic.
The Court in Rasquin v. Cohen, 92 N. H. 440, 441, expressed dissatisfaction with the rule that it must be found probable that newly discovered evidence will produce a different result, saying “A rule which requires the Presiding Justice to forecast the workings of the minds of twelve supposititious jurymen can hardly be regarded as sensible.”
In Ellingwood v. Bragg, 52 N. H. 488 (1872) which involved the question whether there should be a new trial when the jury had been permitted to consider incompetent evidence the court said at p. 491: “Jurors alone, and not courts at all, are to determine the weight of the evidence and the court can never say what effect any fact that is relevant may have or may have had on the minds of the jury . . . and it can be only where a case has been clearly and indisputably made out, without the objectionable evidence, that a new trial can properly be refused.” It was held that when the jury was permitted to hear and consider incompetent evidence a new trial should follow unless it “very clearly appear that the improper evidence could not have affected the verdict.”
It seems to me that intentionally false testimony by expert witnesses is as incompetent as any evidence can be and I would place the burden on the party who sought out and proffered the witnesses to prove “very clearly” that their testimony could not have affected the verdict.
It is not only the effect that their known intentionally false testimony may have had on the result that must be considered because if the false testimony had been exposed at the trial the jury could have disbelieved their entire testimony. Also the fact that an expert could be found qualified without his false testimony regarding qualifications does not eliminate the effect that the false testimony on qualifications may have had on the weight which was given to his opinion.
The fact that the verdict is sustainable on other evidence is irrevelant. The question is not whether the verdict was sustainable on other evidence but whether the testimony of these experts can *439be said to have had no effect on the choice the jury made between two sustainable verdicts.
In my opinion it cannot be found in this case that the testimony of these experts “very clearly” could not have affected the verdict and I would therefore grant a new trial. Ellingwood v. Bragg, supra.