DaFoe v. Michigan Brass & Electric Co.
DaFoe v. Michigan Brass & Electric Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff appeals as of right from a jury verdict of no cause of action. We affirm.
Plaintiff injured his elbow when he fell on an interior stairway at defendant’s business. Plaintiff claimed that his fall was caused by defendant’s negligent maintenance of an unsafe stairway. In support of his claim, plaintiff attempted to elicit testimony of his safety expert that if the stairway were five degrees steeper it would be termed a "ladder” rather than a stairway under National Safety Council standards. The trial court precluded such testimony. Plaintiff claims this was error. We disagree.
This Court affirms a trial court’s evidentiary ruling unless it constituted an abuse of discretion. Guider v Smith, 157 Mich App 92, 103-104; 403 NW2d 505 (1987), cert den — US —; 108 S Ct 1079; 99 L Ed 2d 238 (1988), aff'd 431 Mich 559; 431 NW2d 810 (1988). A tried court does not abuse its discretion by excluding evidence of safety regu
Plaintiff further contends that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding evidence that one of defendant’s employees fell on the stairway approximately twenty-two months after plaintiff’s fall. Plaintiff argues that the subsequent accident evidence should have been admitted both for purposes of establishing defendant’s liability and for impeachment. The evidence was clearly incompetent to establish defendant’s liability. See Branch v Klatt, 173 Mich 31, 35; 138 NW 263 (1912). Moreover, we find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s refusal to allow plaintiff to impeach defendant’s witnesses on an irrelevant issue. Plaintiff’s argument that the trial court’s ruling creates "a wide open invitation to misrepresent facts” during discovery is misplaced. We are satisfied that the existing sanctions for intentionally lying under oath are a sufficient deterrent for the misconduct plaintiff fears.
Finally, plaintiff claims that the trial court
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.