Court Opinion

ID: 9475581
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:31:47.033608+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:47.975702
License: Public Domain

ENGEL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. My reading of the record leads me to conclude that the trial judge did not commit reversible error in allowing proof concerning Dunn’s conduct in selling eggs which were under contract with Treat to others. The majority seems to conclude upon the same record that there was little if any relevancy because proof that defendant was stealing from Chicken Delight had no logical tendency “to rebut the inference, circumstantially established by defendant, that Delight had a motive to burn down the buildings in order to punish the defendant. Indeed, such evidence would have just the opposite tendency: learning that Dunn was stealing from it would reinforce any motive Delight *1284might have had to punish Dunn by burning down his buildings.” The district judge took a different view as has been candidly acknowledged in the majority opinion. About all that is apparent from this is that different persons could draw different conclusions from this evidence. In such a circumstance I am inclined to uphold the decision of the trial judge who was present at the time and heard all of the testimony and proof live and who therefore had an opportunity to judge and make the balancing test in determining whether the evidence should or should not be excluded. He obviously did apply such a test, concluded that it had some relevancy and that its probative value outweighed its prejudicial effect.
Beyond that it seems to me that if the majority here is correct and if therefore the evidence would reinforce any motive Delight might have had to punish Dunn by burning down his buildings, to that extent, it was supportive of Dunn’s defense and would in any event be harmless if indeed it was error.