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Graber v. City Of Ankeny9/7/2000
trial, the railroad sought to impeach the plaintiff with evidence of his settlement with Madison, asserting such evidence was relevant because the plaintiff had changed his testimony with respect to the amount of Madison's pre-accident drinking. Id. In upholding the district court's refusal to admit the evidence, this court stated:
The court did not limit defendant's right to impeach [the plaintiff] on the basis of prior inconsistent statements; in fact it specifically ruled that this could be done. Inquiry as to prior inconsistent statements, if any, was permitted by the trial court; it just did not permit evidence as to the reasons for such inconsistencies. Although this latitude might be proper as to other areas of impeachment, it runs head-on in this case with the strong policy considerations favoring settlements and discouraging their use in a manner which might place a chill on settlements or settlement attempts. Under these circumstances it was not error to restrict evidence of the settlement in the manner of the trial court. Id. (citation omitted).
A similar result was reached in Gail v. Clark, 410 N.W.2d 662 (Iowa 1987), a case, like the present one, where the evidence was alleged to be relevant to the settling tortfeasor's bias. In this dramshop action, the convenience store defendant sought to introduce evidence that the plaintiffs, a police officer and his wife, had settled with Clark, the drunken motorist involved in a high-speed chase resulting in the officer's injuries. Gail, 410 N.W.2d at 671. Arguing that the settlement occurred approximately two months after Clark had given his deposition testimony, and that subsequently, at trial, Clark had retracted much of this testimony, the defendant asserted that evidence of the settlement was admissible to show bias or prejudice on Clark's part. Id. The defendant's "theory was that Clark's trial testimony demonstrated an effort by him to help the [plaintiffs] at a time when it would not expose him to liability." Id. The trial court's refusal to allow the evidence was upheld on appeal. Id. at 672.
An enlightening discussion of the relevancy of settlement evidence to bias or prejudice is found in the Nebraska case of London v. Stewart, 376 N.W.2d 553 (Neb. 1985). In that case, the plaintiff, London, was a passenger in an automobile driven by Stewart. London, 376 N.W.2d at 554. Stewart's car was involved in a collision with a vehicle driven by Siecke. Id. At trial, the alleged negligence of both drivers was at issue; Stewart was claimed to be driving on the wrong side of the road and Siecke was alleged to be driving in the dark without his headlights on and possibly on the wrong side of the road. Id. at 554-55. Mrs. Siecke, who was a passenger in her husband's car at the time of the accident, was called as a witness at trial. Id. In contradiction to her deposition testimony, where she had stated "she did not know which side of the road they were on," Mrs. Siecke testified at trial that their car was on the right side of the road at the time of the accident. Id. at 556. Over the plaintiff's objection, the defendant, Stewart, was allowed to inquire whether, at the time of her deposition, her husband was a defendant in the lawsuit. Id. The trial court allowed the question under the theory that it was admissible to show bias. Id. The Supreme Court of Nebraska reversed and in doing so gave the following rationale for its decision:
Assuming that such evidence constitutes evidence of compromising a claim involving the witness, it is difficult to see that such testimony could be the result of bias arising out of such compromise. We agree with the plaintiff that the questions asked of Mrs. Siecke were clearly intended to sugg
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