Court Opinion

ID: 9630304
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:07:59.450792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:36.248459
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice
(concurring):
I concur but desire to separately state my reasons for holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to set aside the stipulation entered into between Kelson’s initial counsel and defendants’ counsel as to the decedent’s blood alcohol content. The decedent’s high level of blood alcohol was probably the most damning evidence presented against plaintiff, and counsel for defendants at the trial stressed the decedent’s intoxication as being the principal cause of his death. I therefore do not have any doubt that a “substantial right” of plaintiff was affected by the court’s ruling on the stipulation. Utah R.Evid. 103.
I prefer to place my concurrence on this issue on the ground that although plaintiff’s motion to set aside the stipulation was made several months prior to trial, plaintiff’s counsel was unable to assure the trial court that all of the necessary witnesses relating to the drawing and examining of the decedent’s blood were still available to testify at trial or to be deposed. The trial judge noted that there was an indication in the record that the stipulation was entered into at a time when defense counsel had expressed his intention to take the deposition of two persons who could establish the accuracy and authenticity of the blood alcohol test. It was approximately eighteen months after the stipulation was entered into before plaintiff’s present counsel, upon discovering the stipulation, moved to set it aside. She was unable, however, to assure the court that the witness who prepared the written certification of the test was still alive and available.
*1158In view of this uncertainty, I cannot conclude as a matter of law that the trial court abused its discretion in denying plaintiffs motion. In denying the motion, the trial court did state that although the stipulation would be admitted into evidence, “this does not prevent other evidence coming in to challenge the report, such as that the wrong vial of blood was tested, or that it was drawn from the wrong person.” This ruling left plaintiff free to attack the report of the testing. Under these facts, the trial court’s refusal to set aside the stipulation cannot be seriously faulted.
STEWART, J., concurs in the concurring opinion of HOWE, Associate C.J.