Court Opinion

ID: 9465936
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:00:30.382235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:27.381104
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
While I concur with the substantive holdings of the panel in this complicated case, I respectfully dissent on the issue of whether the district court properly conducted the remand hearing. I simply do not feel that the trial court complied with our remand order requiring “a full hearing” to determine the true extent of Tumminello’s perjury, and an “examination thereafter of the findings, conclusions, and injunction.” 556 F.2d 702, 705 (4th Cir. 1977).
On remand, the district court heard Tumminello testify as to the extent of his perjury, and held that the remainder of his testimony should be credited. In so doing, the district court credited Tumminello’s testimony over the testimony of several Crown officials, including James C. Blackman, who had testified only by deposition at the trial. The defendant requested, among other things, that Blackman be allowed to testify in person at the remand hearing, but the district court denied this request. I believe the denial of this request was error. The court credited an admitted perjurer who admitted to the manufacture of false evidence in this very case over a Crown witness without ever viewing the demeanor of the latter. Of course, issues of credibility are often peculiarly within the province of the trier of fact and normally are within the scope of only limited appellate review. However, this rule has as its principal rational foundation the opportunity of the trier of fact to view the live testimony of both witnesses and then credit one over the other. It is the opportunity to hear the witness testify and observe his manner and demeanor on the stand which places the district court in a better position to judge credibility than that of an appellate court which must rely on a cold paper record.
In the case at bar, the district court credited live testimony over evidence taken by deposition, but the live testimony was from a witness whose admitted perjury with respect to certain parts of his testimony was the reason the case was remanded in the first place. I believe the district court was obliged to hear the live testimony of Black-man before making a credibility determination. It may be that after so doing the district court would yet have credited Tumminello, or it may be that even if Tumminello’s testimony had not been credited the other evidence in the case might support a plaintiff’s judgment. But the district court did not in terms base its holding on the sufficiency of evidence other than Tumminello’s to support its finding, and, since it refused to hear Blackman, I would remand the case once again, this time for a new trial, and would give the defendant the opportunity to request trial by jury were it so advised.