Court Opinion

ID: 9711250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:27:27.629546+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:16.817865
License: Public Domain

LORENZ, J., concurs. APPENDIX “[A JUSTICE]: Counsel, I’m disturbed by a statement made in the appellee’s brief *** and in your reply brief you do not respond to it at all. And her statement is that your record and your brief are replete with evidentiary fabrications and distortions of the record, and then she goes on to indicate that there are some fabricated trial exhibits, and many other things. And in your reply brief I would have thought that you would have responded to those charges, because they go to the heart of this case. Do they not? [APPELLANT’S COUNSEL]: No, Your Honor. [A JUSTICE]: And, why not? We go by what the record shows. And, if the record has been distorted, what opportunity do we have to uphold your theory of the issues? [APPELLANT’S COUNSEL]: Well, I disagree that the record was distorted *** [A JUSTICE]: Why didn’t you say so in the reply brief? [APPELLANT’S COUNSEL]: I had responded, Your Honor, in previous motions by the appellee’s counsel, motions to strike parts of the record and to make certain corrections, and now that the motion that was made by the appellee regarding the issue of fabricated trial exhibits ***. As I explained in my response, I’d gotten all trial exhibits, or what I thought to have been the trial exhibits, from the trial attorney himself. There are over 80 exhibits involved here. I did not go through the exhibits, since I believed that what the other attorney gave me were in fact the exhibits for trial and those were the exhibits I gave to the clerk to put in the record on appeal. When the motion was filed and I filed my response to the motion as to making amendments, I saw he didn’t object to it, although he did make response to the idea of fabrication. So, I did address that issue. Number two, there are only two exhibits out of all these allegedly fabricated exhibits which were cited, which were claimed to have been cited to, by myself in my brief. One, I believe was Exhibit Number 73, which I acknowledge in my motion, that I will not, of course, not hold this court to be bound to look at. The second point was Exhibit Number 76. Now, although the Exhibit 76 which I submitted to the clerk, which had been handed to me by the trial counsel, was not the correct exhibit, the Exhibit 76, which I refer to in my brief, was the true and accurate exhibit that was used at trial. [A JUSTICE]: In this reply brief, the only thing, the only mistake you acknowledge making is the name of the school, and of course, that’s a minor matter, but the school, the cite of those schools is separated by about 15 miles, so, but the name is Morton instead of Morton Grove and so on, but that’s the only thing that you acknowledge. Why didn’t you, in your reply brief ***? [APPELLANT’S COUNSEL]: Because I had done so previously in a response motion, which I could show Your Honors. * * * I didn’t want to belabor the issue once again in my brief because I, in motions and responses and in supplementary responses, I addressed those issues. That’s why. It was raised again by counsel although I already responded to those charges in prior responses, prior motions as opposed to the brief itself. Have I cleared that up? I mean I understand what you’re trying to say. I agree that the charges were serious, however, I don’t believe the charges were true. I hope that’s cleared up. [A JUSTICE]: *** So then we have to go to the record and it’s when we go to the record and we find that there are distortions in the record as distinguished from the briefs that makes us very unhappy. *** Hopefully, you can help us out this morning. [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Well, if I could, as far as the exhibits which were true and accurate and which was not, there are only two exhibits which counsel claims were incorrect which I submitted which were actually cited in my brief. One was I believe was Exhibit 73, which I responded to in my response. Naturally, I’m not going to use that argument since it’s not the correct one. Exhibit 76, while I submitted a different Exhibit 76, the Exhibit 76 I actually referred in my brief was in fact the true and accurate Exhibit 76. There is no problem with the exhibits. [A JUSTICE]: It [Exhibit 76] was admitted. [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: The actual 76 Exhibit that I respond to in my brief was the one that was actually admitted. Okay, the one that I submitted to the record originally was not the correct one, it was not the one I was referring to in my brief. [A JUSTICE]: Okay. [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Those were the only two which were allegedly fabricated and I went ahead and cited to those in my briefs. And the only factual argument involved was confusing Morton with Morton Grove. However, there was no Morton Grove referred to, it was simply the Morton Schools. As I indicated *** Morton East or Morton West. * * * [APPELLEE’S ATTORNEY]: I should address first the accusations I have made in my brief and my motion regarding fabrications of the record. But, in two respects *** [A JUSTICE]: That’s a serious charge. [APPELLEE’S ATTORNEY]: I know it is. That’s why I thought I should address it first. There are 15 exhibits that are a part of that record that is in front of the court that were never identified in the trial court, not even identified, let alone admitted into evidence. The numbers are 52, 53, and 73 through 85. And the only way I found those exhibits is when I started going through plaintiff’s brief and saw that he had evidentiary citations for things that I did not remember any proof at trial. We came and checked off the record *** we started going through it and realized that plaintiff had documents which apparently trial counsel had once marked for himself with the intention of admitting, but never did introduce them or identify them at trial. *** I have the advantage in this case of having been trial counsel and being before you and knowing the record. I’m not accusing Mr. Erhlich [sic] of any malice. He came to this as an appellate matter and I have no reason to disbelieve what he says that the trial counsel was the one who gave him the wrong exhibits, but they are wrong nonetheless. *** The other point which the court is *** in this case you have appellate counsel who had nothing to do with the trial, but he takes the record as he finds it, and I would hope that he would present a true and correct record to the court. * * * [A JUSTICE]: What of these charges, Counsel? That’s a very, very serious charge, falsifying records. [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: There are two responses to the defendant’s motion. [A JUSTICE]: Forget the responses. Does it prove that they were never in the record? [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Yes. The exhibits that counsel referred to in her motion were not in the record. I acknowledged those points in my two responses. [A JUSTICE]: How can we reverse when you have put 20 exhibits in the record which were never permitted * * * [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Because my arguments are not in any way based on any of those exhibits which were not admitted to the trial. Only two exhibits of all the exhibits that counsel said were not admitted at trial came from somewhere else. Only two of those that I cited to in my brief. One was Exhibit 73. And my response ***. The other was Exhibit 76, I submitted to the clerk, the record was not correct, the Exhibit 76 that I refer to in my argument was the true and accurate exhibit as admitted and ruled on at the trial court. So, there’s absolutely nothing I’m citing to or relying on that was not admitted at the court as an exhibit. My argument still stands with or without those exhibits. *** Judge, I’m trying to explain the mistake as to the evidence that was submitted. The mistake was that I took the other counsel’s word and asked for the trial exhibits ***. I believed him to say that these were the trial exhibits. I didn’t go through every single exhibit and take the transcript and go through all 800 pages of transcript. [A JUSTICE]: Who prepared the record for appeal, you or the other counsel? [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: The record was there. The exhibits that I added to the record were trial exhibits or what I thought to have been missing trial exhibits. [A JUSTICE]: The fellow who tried it downstairs said these are your trial exhibits. [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: No, I believe that they had some exhibits, they did not have all the exhibits. I went to get the missing exhibits from the other attorney who did the trial. I asked him for the exhibits. He said, ‘Yes, Counsel. Here are the trial exhibits.’ [A JUSTICE]: More importantly, you’re not relying on those in this appeal. It won’t make a bit of difference. [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Exactly. [A JUSTICE]: *** When you found out that they were never in evidence, did you move this court to strike those exhibits? [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: They were already moved to be stricken by counsel. [A JUSTICE]: Well, why didn’t you do it? [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Because I didn’t know about it until counsel made her motion to strike. If I'd known earlier I would have done that. Once counsel made her motion and drew it to my attention I responded and I said, “You’re right, these aren’t the right exhibits. Disregard them. [A JUSTICE]: This is nothing. but an inadvertence on which you’re not relying on on this appeal? [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Exactly. I don’t need any of those exhibits *** [A JUSTICE]: *** I’m just wondering how it happens, that’s all. What you’re suggesting is that it was due to the negligence of your trial counsel? [APPELLANT’S ATTORNEY]: Yes.”