Roundy v. Staley

1999 UT App 229, 984 P.2d 404, 374 Utah Adv. Rep. 15, 1999 Utah App. LEXIS 105, 1999 WL 515564
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedJuly 22, 1999
Docket981062-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1999 UT App 229 (Roundy v. Staley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roundy v. Staley, 1999 UT App 229, 984 P.2d 404, 374 Utah Adv. Rep. 15, 1999 Utah App. LEXIS 105, 1999 WL 515564 (Utah Ct. App. 1999).

Opinions

OPINION

GREENWOOD, Associate Presiding Judge:

¶ 1 Plaintiff Laina Roundy appeals from a jury verdict denying her damages in a personal injury suit as a result of the jury’s finding that she was sixty percent negligent and defendant, Travis Staley, was forty percent negligent. Roundy claims the trial court erred in refusing to grant her a new trial based on the improper admission and nondisclosure of testimony and a surveillance video that impeached testimony about her injuries. Roundy also argues the trial court erred in granting a directed verdict in favor of Staley on her claim for punitive damages. We reverse and remand for a new trial.1

BACKGROUND

¶2 Roundy sustained injuries when she and Staley were involved in a automobile accident. Roundy brought a negligence action against Staley and also sought punitive damages under section 78-18-1 of the Utah Code. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-18-1 (1996 & Supp.1998).

¶ 3 Before trial, Roundy sought discovery from Staley on two different occasions, requesting information about witnesses and evidence that Staley planned to use at trial. Although Staley’s counsel mentioned during jury selection that he might call Ron Gunder-son as a rebuttal witness, he never disclosed Gunderson as a witness or the surveillance tape Gunderson had made of Roundy in his answers to her requests for discovery.

¶ 4 The trial focused primarily on the color of the traffic light at the time of the accident, which party had the right-of-way, and the nature and extent of Roundy’s injuries. Sta-ley called Dr. Gerald Morass to testify as an expert on Roundy’s injuries. Although Dr. Morass had prepared an independent medical examination report concluding that Roun-dy suffered from five percent permanent impairment, he testified that after seeing a surveillance video of Roundy, he doubted Roundy’s truthfulness about the extent of her injuries. When Roundy learned of the tape through Dr. Morass’s testimony, she requested that the trial court order Staley to disclose Gunderson’s identity and the video tape. The trial court denied Roundy’s request and the evidence, showing Roundy engaging in activities that she had testified she was unable to perform, was presented to the jury. At the conclusion of the trial, Staley moved for a directed verdict on Roundy’s punitive damages claim, and Roundy moved for a new trial based on the admission of Gunderson’s testimony and the tape. The trial court granted the directed verdict and denied Roundy’s motion for a new trial. The jury subsequently found Roundy sixty percent negligent and Staley forty percent negligent, preventing Roundy from collecting damages. Roundy appeals.

ISSUES AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 5 Roundy argues the trial court erred in refusing to grant her motion for a new trial based on the nondisclosure of Gun-derson as a witness and the surveillance video. “Because the grant of a new trial is ordinarily left to the sound discretion of the trial court, we will review the court’s decision in this regard under an abuse of discretion standard.” Child v. Gonda, 972 P.2d 425, 429 (Utah 1998). Typically, denial of a motion to compel discovery is reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard, see Archuleta v. Hughes, 969 P.2d 409, 414 (Utah 1998), but the question of whether the trial court erred in denying Roundy’s motion to order disclosure of the video tape and its preparer presents a question of law that we review for correctness. See State v. Pena, 869 P.2d 932, 936 (Utah 1994).

ANALYSIS

I. Preservation of Issue for Appeal

¶ 6 At oral argument, Staley argued that the issue of whether the trial court [407]*407erred in admitting Gunderson’s testimony and the tape was not properly before this court because Roundy failed to preserve the issue for appeal. We disagree. Although Roundy objected neither to introduction of the tape nor to Gunderson’s testimony concerning the tape, Roundy had previously discussed introduction of this evidence with the trial judge. Our review of the record reveals that this colloquy amounted to an oral motion to compel Staley to disclose Gunderson’s identity and to provide the video tape — a motion the court unequivocally denied, stating that the testimony and the tape would be admitted as rebuttal evidence. Therefore, further objection to the admission of Gunderson’s testimony and the tape at the time they were introduced would have been futile. See Beltran v. Allan, 926 P.2d 892, 901 (Utah Ct.App.1996) (Billings, J., dissenting) (“It is well established that the law does not require litigants to do a futile or vain act.”).

¶ 7 Furthermore, this court recently stated that “ ‘absent an order creating a judicially imposed deadline [for disclosing witness lists], a trial court may not sanction a party by excluding its witnesses.’ ” Rehn v. Rehn, 974 P.2d 306, 314 (Utah Ct.App.1999) (quoting Berrett v. Denver & Rio Grande W. R.R., 830 P.2d 291, 296 (Utah Ct.App.1992)). In this case, the trial court did not set a specific date for disclosure of witnesses and evidence. Therefore, even if Roundy had objected to the admission of the testimony and tape at the time this evidence was introduced, the trial court could not have excluded the evidence. We thus conclude that because any objection to the introduction of Gunderson’s testimony and the tape would have been futile, Roundy’s oral motion to compel disclosure of this evidence was sufficient to preserve this issue for appeal. See Samples v. Mitchell, 329 S.C. 106, 495 S.E.2d 213, 216 (App.1997) (holding judge’s ruling on admissibility of surveillance video during trial sufficient to preserve issue for appeal despite counsel’s failure to make a contemporaneous objection when the evidence was introduced because “no opportunity existed for the court to change its ruling”). Furthermore, the issue before us in this appeal is whether the trial court should have ordered disclosure, not admissibility of the video and Gunder-son’s testimony. Roundy preserved that issue in her oral motion to disclose and does not assert any other basis for inadmissibility of the evidence.

II. Disclosure of Evidence

¶ 8 Roundy argues that Utah’s discovery rules required Staley to disclose Gunderson’s identity and the tape in response to Roundy’s requests for discovery. Although no Utah cases have directly addressed the issue of whether a party must disclose a surveillance video in response to requests for discovery, the Utah Supreme Court has held that the

purpose [of Utah’s discovery rules] is to make procedure as simple and efficient as possible by eliminating any useless ritual, undue rigidities or technicalities which may have become engrafted in our law; and to remove elements of surprise or trickery so the parties and the court can determine the facts and resolve the issues as directly, fairly and expeditiously as possible.

Ellis v. Gilbert,

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Bluebook (online)
1999 UT App 229, 984 P.2d 404, 374 Utah Adv. Rep. 15, 1999 Utah App. LEXIS 105, 1999 WL 515564, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roundy-v-staley-utahctapp-1999.