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Daniel v. Indiana Mills & Manufacturing3/19/2003
not a safety concern. Plaintiff was permitted, in rebuttal, to use the exhibits about which defendant complains to demonstrate that inertial unlatching could occur.
Videotapes may be admitted in evidence at trial (1) to re-create events at issue in the litigation or (2) to illustrate physical properties or scientific principles the average layperson would find difficult to understand and which forms the foundation for an expert's opinion. Grose v. Nissan North America, Inc., 50 S.W.3d 825, 830 (Mo.App. 2001). The exhibits in question were offered to rebut the 1992 NHTSA study used by defendant in cross-examination of plaintiff's expert, Mr. Renfroe. There was no contention or inference that the exhibits were offered as reenactments or studies of plaintiff's accident or to explain how his seat belt unlatched. When a video is used to explain a principle asserted by one of the parties, inaccuracies or any unreliability features of the video can be exposed on cross-examination. Nash v. Stanley Magic Door, Inc., 863 S.W.2d 677, 681 (Mo.App. 1993). In that way a jury can properly evaluate the evidence and assign it appropriate weight. Id. After plaintiff's redirect examination of Mr. Renfroe, defendant conducted additional cross-examination in which it pointed out dissimilarities between the buckle in the video and report and the buckle involved in plaintiff's accident, including the difference in the latching device used on the buckles.
Appellate courts grant great deference to a trial court's ruling on the admissibility of a videotape and will not disturb such a ruling absent an abuse of discretion. Id. The trial court in this case did not abuse its discretion in admitting the exhibits in question. The part of Point III directed to the seat belt release evidence is denied.
c. Events Related to Expert's Change of OpinionThe third part of Point III is directed to defendant's attempt to cross-examine Bruno Schmidt, another of plaintiff's expert witnesses. Mr. Schmidt testified at trial that the acceleration forces in plaintiff's accident were primarily vertical and were sufficient to cause his seat belt buckle to inertially unlatch. Mr. Schmidt had been deposed prior to trial. In that deposition, he said the acceleration forces in plaintiff's accident were primarily horizontal. At trial, he told the jury he had changed his opinion after reviewing certain drop tests that had been performed by another expert employed by another party. The party who had employed the expert who performed the tests on which Mr. Schmidt relied had been a named defendant in the case before settling the claim plaintiff made against it. The previous litigant, Mack Trucks, employed David Peruski to measure vertical forces in a "drop test." The test was performed by lifting a Mack truck with a crane and dropping the truck to determine acceleration of the truck during the drop and the effect the dropping of the truck had on the truck's suspension. The test was performed after Mr. Schmidt was deposed.
Defendant contended the reason Mr. Schmidt's opinion changed was that the truck manufacturer, Mack, and the door manufacturer, GenCorp, had settled the claims plaintiff made against them and been dismissed from the suit. Defendant sought to cross-examine Mr. Schmidt "concerning the timing of the Mack/GenCorp settlement and dismissal" to refute his explanation and to establish bias and lack of credibility. The trial court permitted defendant to point out the witness' change of opinion and the change in his testimony at trial from what it had been at deposition. It refused to allow defendant to present evidence of a settlement or dismissal of other parties. Defendant asserts in this appeal that the trial court e
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