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Woodbury v. CH2M Hill9/10/2003
, 359, 494 P2d 412 (1972). As pertinent here, we review decisions concerning the admissibility of other act evidence to determine, first, whether it is independently relevant and, second, whether it is unduly prejudicial. We review the former question as a matter of law, Rugemer v. Rhea, 153 Or App 400, 405-06, 957 P2d 184 (1998), and the latter for an abuse of discretion, Wallace v. Hinkle Northwest, Inc., 79 Or App 177, 182-83, 717 P2d 1280 (1986).
In this case, plaintiff did not offer the evidence of defendant's failure to install a guardrail as evidence of some other act of negligence. Instead, the evidence was offered to show a continuing course of negligent conduct--again, defendant's failure "to adequately inspect and supervise the assembly, use, and disassembly operation of the platform or scaffold." As discussed above, the evidence is relevant for that purpose. As for prejudice, we note that defendant's only argument is that the evidence is unfairly prejudicial because it is irrelevant. In light of our conclusion to the contrary as to relevance, we conclude as well that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the evidence was not unfairly prejudicial.
D. Evidence of safety manuals
Before trial, defendant moved to exclude evidence of private health and safety manuals adopted by defendant and by Reynolds, one of its subcontractors, both of which, defendant argued, articulated an inappropriate standard of safety that is above what is required by the law. Plaintiff argued that the manuals were relevant and not unfairly prejudicial. The trial court agreed.
On appeal, defendant again contends that the evidence of the private safety manuals was inadmissible. Defendant argues that, while government safety standards may be admissible to prove a standard of care, private safety manuals are not. Plaintiff argues that private safety manuals are not categorically inadmissible, particularly when offered to prove the reasonableness of conduct in a common-law negligence--as opposed to a negligence per se--case. Once again, we agree with plaintiff.
Relevance is a question of law. Minchue, 173 Or App at 523. We addressed the question whether internal company safety manuals are relevant in Jett v. Ford Motor Company, 183 Or App 260, 52 P3d 441 (2002), rev'd on other grounds, 335 Or 493, 72 P3d 71 (2003). The defendant offered evidence of its own internal safety rules concerning the proper parking and braking of a delivery truck. The plaintiff objected to the admissibility of the rules on the ground that they were only private rules and not governmental safety regulations and that they expressed a standard "higher than the law." Id. at 268. We held that the internal safety rules were relevant as evidence of the reasonableness of the plaintiff's conduct in that common-law negligence case. Id. The same reasoning applies in this case.
The remaining question is whether the admission of defendant's safety rules in this case was unfairly prejudicial. We review the trial court's decision in that regard for an abuse of discretion. Blume v. Fred Meyer, Inc., 155 Or App 102, 108, 963 P2d 700 (1998).
In this case, defendant argues that the admission of the internal safety rules likely confused the jury. Its argument, however, is predicated on an erroneous assumption that the jury could not consider the evidence of the internal safety rules in the first place. As we noted in Jett, that evidence properly may be taken into consideration in determining whether a defendant has acted in a reasonable manner. 183 Or App at 268. We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion.
E. Failure to cap non-econom
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