Court Opinion

ID: 9742120
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:07:02.897734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:28.635529
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring in the result.
Unlike the Chief Justice, I am not sure I agree with most of what the majority says, but I do agree with its conclusion that we need an expert opinion to detail the extent of the defendant’s prejudice in order to weigh the prejudice suffered against the remedy of dismissal. Like the Chief Justice, I agree that the defendant has suffered prejudice, but, like the majority, I am not sure just how much. The majority’s insistence on expert testimony to help answer that question is prudent policy to follow before granting the extraordinary remedy of dismissal. I therefore concur in the result.
I embrace the following propositions, whether or not found in the majority or dissenting opinion:
1. As between plaintiffs and defendant, plaintiffs bear the responsibility for the absence of the hub and any risk arising from that absence. While plaintiffs did not destroy the hub intentionally, they either were negligent in protecting against destruction or made a conscious decision to forgo protecting against the destruction because there was deemed to be no viable claim against the manufacturer. In either event, the parties are not equally blameless for the destruction of the hub. Defendant had no opportunity to protect itself. Plaintiffs did.
2. Plaintiffs are proceeding on a design defect theory for which they need not rely on *536the particular hub. Indeed, a cynic might venture that not only need plaintiffs not rely on the particular hub, but given the defense that this hub was not reasonably maintained, plaintiffs are well rid of the particular hub.
3. Defendant does need the particular hub because its defense is lack of lubrication, so the question is whether the available photos of the hub and circumstantial evidence are reasonable substitutes for the actual thing. So far, we have only the argument of defendant’s counsel and our own common sense that defendant is prejudiced, which are, of course, helpful and necessary to our legal determination of prejudice but, in this case, not sufficient to justify dismissal. Because defendant relies on the hub for its defense there is certainly prejudice to the defendant. However, the trial judge and we need to know the extent of prejudice to defendant’s case. See Dillon v. Nissan Motor Co., 986 F.2d 263 (8th Cir.1993) [upholding exclusion of evidence at trial because trial record established prejudice where photos were grainy and not comprehensive, and vehicle that was destroyed “was evidence which may have proved helpful to the defense”]. The parties are not equally victimized by the destruction of the hub, despite any contrary suggestion.
The bottom line here is whether the defendant can mount a successful defense based upon the color photos and circumstantial evidence or whether the tests it would have conducted and other evidence it would have garnered from the hub were indispensable and if so, what were they and why crucial, and without which, what effect? If defendant produces that kind of elucidating expert testimony to establish serious prejudice, dismissal may be an appropriate exercise of the court’s inherent authority.
Therefore, I concur in the result.
MESCHKE, J., joins.