Court Opinion

ID: 9628368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:17:57.152085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:04.514976
License: Public Domain

WOOD, Chief Judge (specially concurring). I concur in Judge Lopez’s opinion. This special concurrence goes only to Evidence Rule 301 and its practical effect. 1. The Estate appealed, challenging the propriety of the presumption instructions. It relied on the New Mexico law prior to the adoption of Evidence Rule 301. Under that prior law, the instructions should not have been given because there was credible and substantial evidence which would have supported a finding that Montoya was not driving the car. With this evidence, the presumption disappeared. Hartford Fire Insurance Company v. Horne, 65 N.M. 440, 338 P.2d 1067 (1959). Evidence Rule 301, however, changed the law. Under Evidence Rule 301, the Estate had a burden of persuasion which it did not have prior to adoption of the evidence rule. The Estate is in no position to complain of the instructions given because those instructions imposed less of a burden on the Estate than should have been imposed pursuant to Evidence Rule 301. Significantly, Judge Lopez does not hold that the erroneous instructions amounted to reversible error. 2. Judge Lopez’s opinion points out that the fact finder, in this case the jury, must decide whether the party against whom the presumption is directed has proved that the nonexistence of the presumed fact is more probable than its existence. Evidence Rule 301. This rule does not change the trial judge’s function of deciding whether there is sufficient evidence for the jury to determine whether this burden has been met. The standard for determining whether the evidence is sufficient to raise a jury issue is the same standard used in determining whether a verdict should be directed. 1 Weinstein’s Evidence (1978) ¶ 301[02], page 301-30. Thus, if there are conflicts in the evidence going to the probability of the nonexistence of the presumed fact, it is for the jury to determine whether the burden has been met. See Hayes v. Reeves, 91 N.M. 174, 571 P.2d 1177 (1977); Skyhook Corp. v. Jasper, 90 N.M. 143, 560 P.2d 934 (1977). 3. In this case the evidence that Montoya owned the car was uncontradicted. In a case where the evidence of ownership was conflicting, a factual determination of ownership would have to be made. Until it was determined as a fact that an occupant of the car was the owner, the presumption would not be applicable. Where the evidence of ownership is conflicting, the jury must be instructed that the presumption (or assumed fact) does not exist until the basic fact of the presumption has been found to exist. Since such an instruction would go only to a part of the case, will the jury be confused in applying it? 4. In this case, the “burden” of Evidence Rule 301 does not add to the Estate’s problems of persuasion because the Estate counterclaimed. Under the counterclaim, the Estate was required to prove that Trujillo was the driver. But what if there were no counterclaim and no affirmative defense which involved the question of who was the driver? The defense would have a burden of proof under Evidence Rule 301, and the jury instructions would have to distinguish between the burdens on plaintiff and defendant. No matter how carefully instructed, the allocation of different burdens has the potential for confusing the jury, particularly so when one of the burdens involves proof of the probability of a negative. 5. Another problem, settled in New Mexico concerning the presumption of validity of marriage, see Panzer v. Panzer, 87 N.M. 29, 528 P.2d 888 (1974), involves conflicting presumptions. If other conflicting presumptions should arise, and I suspect they will, see Wood, The Community Property Law of New Mexico (1954) § 27 and Myers v. Kapnison, 93 N.M. 215, 598 P.2d 1175 (Ct.App.1978) how are they to be handled under Evidence Rule 301? Weinstein, supra, ¶ 301[03] suggests the question is an open one. 6. Evidence Rule 301 was not discussed in Archibeque v. Homrich, 88 N.M. 527, 543 P.2d 820 (1975). Compare opinion of Judge Hernandez in the same case, 87 N.M. 265, 531 P.2d 1238 (Ct.App.1975). The facts of Archibeque suggest a case for application of the presumption involved in this case; however, res ipsa loquitur was involved. Gausewitz, Presumptions in a One-Rule World, 5 Vand.L.Rev. 324 at 333 (1952) states: “Since a presumption is by definition mandatory, a verdict must be directed that the presumed fact exists if the presumption is not rebutted. One instance of a departure may be the case of res ipsa loquitur.” Is the res ipsa doctrine an exception to Evidence Rule 301? The rule does not state any exceptions. 7. New Mexico appellate decisions have recognized the change effected by the adoption of Evidence Rule 301. Panzer v. Panzer, supra; State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Duran, 93 N.M. 489, 601 P.2d 722 (Ct.App.1979). However, compare Garmond v. Kinney, 91 N.M. 646, 579 P.2d 178 (1978). Although a burden of persuasion approach is the “rule” in New Mexico, alongside that rule is a decision giving evidentiary effect to the presumption of insanity. State v. Wilson, 85 N.M. 552, 514 P.2d 603 (1973). See State v. Santillanes, 91 N.M. 721, 580 P.2d 489 (Ct.App.1978) where this special evidentiary effect was recognized, but where the presumption rule for criminal cases, Evidence Rule 303, was not discussed. Compare Trefzer v. Stiles, 56 N.M. 296, 243 P.2d 605 (1952) with Hartford Fire Insurance Company v. Horne, supra. Weinstein, supra, page 301-5 indicates that giving a presumption an evidentiary effect is “obvious nonsense.” My point in this paragraph, simply, is that Evidence Rule 301 may not be “the rule” where the presumption of insanity is involved. 8. Eminent writers have supported the burden of persuasion approach adopted in Evidence Rule 301. I, of course, must apply that rule. Alexander v. Delgado, 84 N.M. 717, 507 P.2d 778 (1973). Paragraphs 3 through 7 raise, for me, the question of whether the logic of the various writers, see Weinstein, supra, pages 300-1 to 301-17, has led to the adoption of a rule which causes more problems than it solves, which has the potential of causing the most careful trial judge to err in the instructions given, and which has the potential to confuse a jury. New Mexico adopted, as its rule, the wording proposed by the drafting committee. Both Houses of Congress rejected the same language. See Weinstein, supra, pages 301-1 to 301-13. The evidence rule enacted by Congress follows the bursting bubble approach; that is, the approach used in New Mexico prior to the adoption of Evidence Rule 301, Rule 301, 28 U.S.C.A. (1975) page 66. 9. Evidence Rule 301 may have been improvidently adopted; at least, it should be reconsidered. Compare State v. Howell, 93 N.M. 64, 596 P.2d 277 (Ct.App.1979).