Court Opinion

ID: 9474837
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:10:21.845745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:22.184649
License: Public Domain

HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in the disposition in the majority opinion and in all parts of the opinion except Part III which holds that the trial court erred in excluding the evidence of subsequent trading by plaintiff-appellant Hill. I must respectfully dissent from that part of the opinion.
The trial judge heard the offers of proof and concluded that the testimony was of doubtful relevance as to Hill’s knowledge, sophistication or experience some five months earlier, and that even if relevant, the evidence would confuse the jury and “waste an inordinate amount of time for any probative value it could possibly have ...” (App. 319). It is true that under Fed. R.Evid. 403, the probative value of relevant evidence must be substantially outweighed by the danger of confusion or undue delay, or other named factors, to justify exclusion. Considering the evidence offered with its claimed probative value, and the persuasive countervailing factors cited by the trial judge, I am unable to agree that the judge abused his discretion in the ruling made. See Moe v. Avions Marcel Dassault-Brequet Aviation, 727 F.2d 917, 935 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 176, 83 L.Ed.2d 110 (1984). Since the case is going back for a retrial the issue should be considered, but I would uphold the trial court’s exclusion of the evidence.