Court Opinion

ID: 9551643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:56:41.573504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:19.787863
License: Public Domain

*921RABINOWITZ, Justice
(concurring).
I concur with the majority’s opinion except for the issue pertaining to Officer Jones’ testimony.
In my opinion Fairbanks Publishing Co. v. Francisco1 is inapposite. There the pretrial order made specific reference to the witnesses who could be called at trial, while in the case at bar the pretrial order contained no reference to witnesses. Unlike Francisco there is no indication in this record that the attitude of appellant’s counsel towards compliance with the court’s order and with pretrial procedures in general was akin to that of Francisco’s counsel.
In this case appellee’s counsel had the same prior notice as did appellant’s counsel of the possibility that Officer Jones could give testimony concerning appellee’s purported state of intoxication. Admittedly, the superior court’s order for pretrial conference required counsel, prior to the pretrial conference, to exchange lists disclosing the names and addresses of all witnesses, and further stated that failure to comply with this requirement could result in the exclusion of witnesses at trial. On the other hand, Civ.R. 16(e) explicitly provides that the pretrial order, when entered, shall control the subsequent course of action. In this case the pretrial order was silent on the question of limitation of witnesses.
If witnesses, either expert or nonexpert, are to be limited at trial, then such a limitation must, in my opinion, be made a part of the pretrial order to be binding. I am therefore of the opinion that it was an abuse of discretion to have precluded appellant’s calling Officer Jones. There is nothing in the record which contradicts counsel for appellant’s assertion that he relied on the fact that there was no limitation of witnesses embodied in the pretrial order. Nevertheless, I concur in the result reached by this court because appellant has failed to show that he was precluded, under the trial court’s ruling, from offering Officer Jones’ testimony in rebuttal.

. 390 P.2d 784 (Alaska 1964).