Court Opinion

ID: 9709862
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:56:20.323797+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:52.165957
License: Public Domain

Concurring & Dissenting Opinion by
MURPHY, J.,
which BELL, C.J. joins in dissent only.
Although I agree with much in Chief Judge Bell’s dissent, I am not persuaded that Petitioners were actually prejudiced by the error that occurred when Ms. Queen’s deposition was *621used by Respondents during the presentation of their evidence. I therefore agree with the majority that Petitioners are not entitled to a new trial on that ground. For the reasons that follow, however, I dissent from the holding that “the trial judge did not abuse her discretion in allowing Respondents to introduce into evidence the Un-Redacted ARC Report.”
In Sims v. State, 319 Md. 540, 573 A.2d 1317 (1990), while affirming a ruling that prohibited a murder defendant from presenting evidence of the victim’s “rowdy” behavior several hours before the victim was shot and killed, this Court stated:
The inferential value of proof of the existence of a condition at one point in time to prove its existence at a later point of time depends on a variety of circumstances.
When the existence of an object, condition, quality, or tendency at a given time is in issue, the prior existence of it is in human experience some indication of its probable persistence or continuance at a later period.
The degree of probability of this continuance depends on the chances of intervening circumstances having occurred to bring the existence to an end. The possibility of such circumstances will depend almost entirely on the nature of the specific thing whose existence is in issue and the particular circumstances affecting it in the case in hand.... So far, then, as the interval of time is concerned, no fixed rule can be laid down; the nature of the thing and the circumstances of the particular case must control. (Emphasis in original).
2 Wigmore on Evidence § 437 (3d ed.1940).
In . . . Stitzel v. Kurz, 18 Md.App. 525, 308 A.2d 430, cert. denied, 269 Md. 761 (1973), the Court of Special Appeals held that evidence concerning the condition of a road sign was properly admitted:
When it is shown that a condition existed at a certain time, and the condition is one which by its nature is relatively permanent, rather than transitory or changeable, it is rational to infer that the same condition existed *622before and after the time shown, for a length of time reasonably consistent with the circumstances, unless there is evidence from which a change in the condition could reasonably be inferred.
In dealing with conditions more likely to change, however, this Court has recognized that evidence of the earlier condition may not have sufficient probative value to be admissible.
Id. at 555-57, 573 A.2d at 1324-25. (Emphasis in original).
In Stitzel, supra, the Court of Special Appeals reversed a “directed verdict” that had been entered in favor of Baltimore County and against the parents of a young man who sustained fatal injuries on September 11, 1970 when an automobile being driven by the deceased’s friend left the road and struck a utility pole. The driver testified that the accident occurred after he passed a road sign indicating a curve to the right, and slowed down in anticipation of that curve. Unfortunately, that road sign was “incorrect.” According to Baltimore County’s Director of Traffic Engineering, (1) when the “incorrect” sign was installed on May 1, 1970, the Department should have installed “a left reverse curve sign at this location,” and (2) the mistake was corrected on October 5, 1970, on which day the Department removed the sign “showing the curve to be in the direction opposite to the direction of the actual curve.” Id. at 530, 308 A.2d at 433.
At the conclusion of the plaintiffs’ case-in-chief, Baltimore County argued that “there was no evidence that the sign was incorrect at the time of the accident,” and the Circuit Court’s “directed verdict” was based on its finding “that there was no evidence that the County had knowledge of an erroneous sign, nor was there any evidence of when the erroneous sign became so[.]” Id. at 536, 308 A.2d at 437. While holding that “[i]t was error to direct a verdict for Baltimore County,” the Court of Special Appeals stated:
The jury could properly have found in this case that the sign was erected incorrectly by Baltimore County on 1 May 1970 and remained that way until it was corrected on 5 *623October 1970. It follows that the evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to find that Baltimore County was negligent and that its negligence was a proximate cause of the injury.
Id. at 538, 308 A.2d at 438.
Because the condition of paint on a wall (or woodwork, or a door, or a windowsill) is “transitory or changeable,” evidence of the condition of the paint in 1999 simply does not permit a rational inference that the same condition existed in 1994. Moreover, the fact that Respondents sold the property in 1995 constitutes “evidence from which a change in the condition [of the paint] could be reasonably inferred.” Under these circumstances, I would hold that Petitioners were unfairly prejudiced by (1) the Circuit Court’s erroneous failure to exclude the UnRedacted ARC Report, and (2) the argument of Respondents’ counsel that this report constituted relevant “circumstantial evidence” that “the paint was never chipping, peeling, or flaking while [Petitioners] lived there[.]”
While Maryland Rule 5-403 provides trial judges with the discretion to exclude relevant evidence, trial judges do not have discretion to admit irrelevant evidence. Maryland Rule 5-402, in pertinent part, provides that, “[e]vidence that is not relevant is not admissible.” To resolve the issue of whether the Un-Redacted ARC Report constituted relevant circumstantial evidence in this case, it may be helpful to hypothesize a jury trial of a money damage action for alleged lead paint exposure that will take place later this year. Assume that (1) the family of the injured child lived in the subject property from 1994 to 1997, (2) the defendants who owned this property during that period of time sold it in 1998, (3) an ARC inspector, who was never in the subject property until 2002, conducted tests for “subsurface” lead during that year, and prepared a report that includes a section in which the inspector noted that, “because I observed so much of the paint to be chipping and peeling, almost none of the painted surfaces in the property were ‘intact,’ “ and (4) the ARC inspector took photographs of the chipping and peeling paint. Could the plaintiffs introduce the entire report into evidence? Should the Circuit Court overrule the defendants’ objection to the *624ARC inspector’s testimony that he observed chipping and peeling paint in 2002? Would the photographs taken in 2002 be admitted as circumstantial evidence of what the subject property looked like from 1994 to 1997 without foundational testimony that these photographs fairly and accurately showed the condition of the paint during those years? I am persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that the answer to each of these questions should be “no.”
The trial judge must order that inadmissible portions of otherwise admissible records be excised or redacted. For example, hospital records include information about whether a person injured in an auto accident was or was not wearing a seatbelt, and whether a person injured while operating a motorcycle was or was not wearing a motorcycle helmet. In personal injury actions arising out of such accidents, however, (1) evidence that the plaintiff was not using his or her seatbelt is prohibited by § 22-412.3 of the Transportation Article, and (2) evidence that the plaintiff was not wearing his or her motorcycle helmet is prohibited by § 21-1306 of the Transportation Article. It is clear that a defendant-driver could not get prohibited evidence before the jury merely because the plaintiffs medical expert reviewed an “un-redacted” hospital record that included the prohibited information. It is equally clear that Respondents should not have been permitted to get the Un-Redacted ARC Report before the jury.
Moreover, the record shows that Respondents argued to the Circuit Court that the Un-Redacted ARC Report should be admitted on the ground that it had been relied upon by Petitioners’ experts, and then argued to the jury that this exhibit supported their claim that the paint was intact while Petitioners lived in the property. Under these circumstances, “to curtail abuses, [the ruling admitting the exhibit into evidence should be] subject to review as to the actual use made of the object.” Smith v. Ohio Oil Company, et al., 10 Ill.App.2d 67, 134 N.E.2d 526, 531 (1956). I would therefore hold that the “actual use [that Respondents made of the Un-Redacted Report] proved to be an abuse of the ruling.” Id.
*625I recognize that, during his direct examination, Dr. Paulson testified that “there was lead paint ... on multiple surfaces at that address ... when the home was inspected in May of 1999.” Because evidence of the condition of the paint in 1999 does not permit a rational inference that the same condition existed in 1994, this testimony was clearly irrelevant. The record shows, however, that Respondents did not object to this testimony and did not request that it be stricken. Under these circumstances, Respondents were not entitled to introduce their own irrelevant evidence “as an answer to [Dr. Paulson’s] irrelevant testimony.” Baltimore & Susquehanna R.R. Co. v. Woodruff, 4 Md. 242, 255 (1853).
In Lake Roland Elevated Ry. Co. v. Weir, 86 Md. 273, 37 A. 714 (1897), this Court stated:
If [a party’s] evidence be clearly irrelevant, it should not be admitted on the ground that other irrelevant evidence had already been introduced, unless the latter was admitted by the Court after objection. If the irrelevant evidence is offered by one party, the other side should object to it, and if it be given before its irrelevancy is apparent, the Court should strike it out on proper application.
Id. at 277, 37 A. at 716.
In my opinion, Petitioners should be awarded a new trial on the ground that they were unfairly prejudiced by the erroneous admission of the Un-Redacted ARC Report.