Court Opinion

ID: 9669343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:52:07.116421+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:55.600947
License: Public Domain

CADY, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
Although I agree the Iowa Dram Shop Act applies to this case, I would conclude Argosy should be granted a new trial based on the failure of the trial court to permit evidence at trial that Morales was partially nude at the time of the automobile accident.
The fundamental question presented by this evidentiary issue is whether the trial court abused its discretion in finding the disputed evidence was unfairly prejudicial under Iowa Rule of Evidence 5.403. Admittedly, the abuse of discretion standard is broad. Yet, the proper resolution of this question begins by recognizing that there is a strong assumption that relevant evidence is admissible. 2 Clifford S. Fish-man, Jones on Evidence § ll:10(a), at 283 (7th ed.1994) [hereinafter Jones on Evidence], Under this rule, all relevant evidence is admissible “unless its probative value is ‘substantially outweighed’ by one or more of the negative factors listed in the rule.” Id. This legal standard reveals exclusion of relevant evidence to be “an ‘extraordinary remedy’ that should be used only ‘sparingly.’ ” Id. In other words, relevant evidence should normally be admitted at trial.
The disputed evidence was relevant in this case because it went to the very heart of Argosy’s defense of superseding cause. The law provides that a wrongdoer may be absolved from liability from wrongdoing when an unforeseeable intervening force occurs after the original wrongdoing that *152substantially contributes to the plaintiffs injuries. See Rieger v. Jacque, 584 N.W.2d 247, 251 (Iowa 1998). In this case, there was evidence that the harm created by Argosy’s wrongdoing was initially abated when Jurado and Graciano assured the police that they would drive Morales home due to her intoxicated condition. More importantly, not only was there evidence that Morales would not have been driving if Jurado and Graciano would have done what they told police they would do, but that she may not have been driving in a frantic and reckless manner without the intervention of some apparent horrifying and frightening force that could only be explained by the evidence that Morales was driving the car naked from the waist down. Without this evidence, the defense of superseding cause was essentially meaningless because there was nothing to show the intervening force exacerbated the original risk of harm created by Argosy. See id.
One of the negative factors under rule 5.403 that may cause relevant evidence to be excluded from trial is where “its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.” Iowa R. Evid. 5.403. However, evidence is not prejudicial simply because it is unfavorable to the plaintiff. “Relevant evidence is inherently prejudicial to the party against whom it is offered, in the sense that it hurts or damages that party’s chances of winning the law suit.” 2 Jones on Evidence § 11:14, at 293. Thus, evidence is unfairly prejudicial “only if it has potential to influence the jury to decide the case improperly or the jury is likely to attribute excessive probative value to it.” Id. at 294. The trial court apparently believed the evidence would taint Morales’ character and consequently give the jury a reason to improperly reduce her children’s damages for her loss. The reasoning followed by the trial court, and the majority, properly centers on the potential for the jury to improperly decide the case, but the evidence is far from the type that would override the ability of the jury to properly consider the law and the other evidence in the case. See id. It was part of the essential facts of the case.
Courts should not sanitize the evidence of a case so that the complete picture is not presented to the jury under some vague, unsupported belief that the jury would abdicate its responsibility if the actual evidence was presented. There is absolutely nothing to indicate the jury could not use this evidence for the important purpose that it was offered. Moreover, it is an assault on the jury system to withhold it on the basis articulated by the trial court.
The result of this case is contrary to our governing rules of evidence and is an affront to the jury system of justice. It also enlarges the abuse of discretion standard well beyond its intended scope.
CARTER and TERNUS, JJ., join this dissent.