ROBERT D. MARIANI, District Judge.
Presently before the Court are the following Motions in Limine filed by Plaintiff Nastasha Burdyn:
The Court will address each motion in turn. Before doing so, however, the Court notes at the outset that it exercises its discretion to rule in limine on evidentiary issues "in appropriate cases." In re Japanese Elee. Prods. Antitrust Litig., 723 F.2d 238, 260 {3d Cir.1983), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. Matsushita Elee.lndus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L. Ed. 2d 538 (1986). While motions in limine may serve as a useful pretrial tool that enables a more in-depth briefing than would be available at trial, acourt may defer ruling on such motions "if the context of trial would provide clarity." Frintnerv. TruePosition, 892 F.Supp.2d 699, 707 (E.D. Pa. 2012) (citing Japanese Elec. Prods., 723 F.2d at 260).
"[M]otions in limine often present issues for which final decision is best reserved for a specific trial situation." Walden v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., 126 F.3d 506, 518 n.10 (3d Cir 1997). Thus, certain motions, "especially ones that encompass broad classes of evidence, should generally be deferred until trial to allow for the resolution of questions of foundation, relevancy, and potential prejudice in proper context." Leonard v. Stemetech Health Scis., Inc., 981 F.Supp.2d 273, 276 (D. Del. 2013). Specifically, "pretrial Rule 403 exclusions should rarely be granted.... [A] court cannot fairly ascertain the potential relevance of evidence for Rule 403 purposes until it has a full record relevant to the putatively objectionable evidence." In re Paoli R.R. Yard PCB Litig., 916 F.2d 829, 859 (3d Cir. 1990) (emphasis original). Finally, it is important to note that "in limine rulings are not binding on the trial judge, and the judge may always change his mind during the course of atriaL" Ohler v. United States, 529 U.S. 753, 758 n.3, 120 S.Ct. 1851, 146 L. Ed. 2d 826 (2000).
With these prinCiples in mind, the Court now turns to Plaintiffs motions.
Plaintiffs first motion in limine requests that "Defendants be barred from asking scandalous and impertinent questions of Plaintiff for which there is no evidentiary support." (Doc. 251; Doc. 252, at 7). Plaintiffs motion includes several examples of questions which she deems to be "scandalous and impertinent", including questions which allegedly imply that Plaintiff "decided to have an affair with Krenitsky", that Plaintiff should have told Semenza's wife that she was in love with her husband, that Plaintiff should have been aware of the difference between "good touches and bad touches", and that Plaintiff lifelt sexy" when Semenza entered the Old Forge Hose & Engine Company ("OFHE") bathroom while she was showering. (See Doc. 252). The basis for Plaintiffs argument appears to be that these types of questions should be barred because they allegedly were "simply to re-victimize and project blame on Plaintiff." (Doc. 252, at 6). Although Plaintiff provides the aforementioned examples of questions or statements which she deems "scandalous and impertinent", Plaintiffs Reply brief clarifies that these questions were "merely intended to illustrate the types of irrelevant and potentially embarrassing lines of questioning Plaintiff seeks to preclude." (Doc. 338, at 3).
Defendants OFHE and Old Forge Borough filed briefs in opposition to Plaintiffs motion. (Docs. 284, 297). While Defendant Semenza also filed a brief in response to Plaintiffs motion (Doc. 283), the brief fails to address Plaintiffs overarching argument. Rather, Semenza's brief requests that "Plaintiffs request to bar questioning about her actions while showering be extended to barring any and all reference to Defendant [Semenza] allegedly being present in the bathroom as irrelevant." (Doc. 283, at 3). Defendant further argues that "if Plaintiff seeks to introduce evidence that Defendant was present in the bathroom while she showered, Plaintiffs conduct once she thought Defendant Semenza was present is relevant to rebut Plaintiffs claims of assault." (Doc. 283, at 5).
With respect to Plaintiffs motion, the Court has no way of knowing the manner in which defense counsel will ask Plaintiff certain questions or how these questions will be phrased. Nor can the Court at this time determine the relevance of any question defense counsel may pose. The Court will therefore defer ruling on Plaintiffs motion until trial. The Court expects Plaintiff to make any objection to specific questions by Defendants of Plaintiff at the appropriate time, at which time the Court can better determine the propriety and relevance of the question at issue. However, we note that there is no recognized objection simply on the grounds that aquestion is allegedly "scandalous" or "impertinent". Thus, unless the objection goes to lack of relevance under Rule 401, that, under Rule 403, a danger of unfair prejudice exists should the question be answered, or is premised on another objection set forth in the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Court will overrule Plaintiffs objection on the grounds that aquestion is, in Plaintiffs opinion, "scandalous" or "impertinent".
With respect to Semenza's request contained within his brief responding to Plaintiffs motion, the Court first notes that this is an inappropriate manner in which to request a ruling by the Court. The purpose of a brief in opposition to another party's motion is not to make a separate motion, albeit tangentially related to the original party's motion. Nonetheless, the Court will also defer on Semenza's request pending questioning of Plaintiff or any other witness regarding the presence of Semenza in the bathroom at the time Plaintiff was showering. Once again, the Court is not in aposition to rule on this request without first hearing testimony by the witnesses and the specific question which Semenza believes elicits inadmissible or irrelevant testimony.
Plaintiffs next motion in limine (Doc. 253) argues that because Plaintiff was fifteen when the "sexual assaults by Semenza, Krenitsky, and Chiavacci", three adults, occurred, under state law Plaintiff could not consent to having sexual relations with the men and therefore Defendants should be precluded from either using consent as a defense or presenting evidence for the purpose of establishing consent as a mitigating factor. (Doc. 254, at 7).
Plaintiffs motion is overbroad. It is undisputed that Plaintiff was 15 years old at the time that Chiavacci assaulted her and was therefore legally unable to consent. Similarly, until March 30, 2005, Plaintiff was legally incapable of consenting to any alleged sexual acts with Krentisky and Semenza. (See e.g. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3125(a)(8); 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3126(a)(8); 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3123(a)(7)). No party appears to dispute this statement. However, Plaintiffs motion attempts to preclude the defendants from raising the issue of consent for the entire period during which the sexual interactions allegedly occurred, Le. through 2007. Plaintiff argues that by "criminalizing sexual activity with minors who are less than sixteen (16) years old, and explicitly precluding consent as adefense to such acts, the Pennsylvania General Assembly sought to protect adolescents from the physical and psychological harms that often result from having sexual relations with adults." (Doc. 254, at 3). Although Plaintiff sets forth what may be characterized as a public policy argument for why any evidence of consent during the entire time period of her claims should be precluded, she fails to provide any legal basis for aclaim that she was incapable of consenting to the alleged actions of Semenza and Krenitsky as of March 30, 2005 or thereafter or any legal argument as to why evidence of her consent as of that day would be inadmissible.
However, the Court will defer ruling on Plaintiffs motion. To the extent the evidence offered to establish that the actions which Plaintiff contends constitute sexual behavior, assault, and/or battery, shows that the actions occurred before she reached the age of 16, an appropriate objection should be made and may be granted. Conversely, if the evidence which Plaintiff contends demonstrates the occurrence of purported violations to her bodily integrity, assault, and/or battery, shows that these actions occurred after she reached the age of 16, an objection will be deemed without merit. The Court needs to have before it the specific question which Plaintiff finds objectionable. The Court's ruling will then turn on whether the party posing the question to which Plaintiff objects can lay a foundation establishing that Plaintiff, at that time to which the question is directed, was at least 16 years of age.
Plaintiff's next motion (Doc. 255) seeks to introduce and reference three lawsuits filed against the Borough of Old Forge and/or Semenza and Krenitsky "stemming from acts that occurred in 2006, which is within the relevant time frame of Plaintiff's Complaint. (Doc. 256). Plaintiff asserts that these lawsuits will be used to "illustrate Mayor Michele Avvisato's absenteeism from the Borough." (Id. at 2). In support of her motion, Plaintiff attached as Exhibits the following: the Complaint filed by Michael Marino in Marino v. Old Forge Borough, et al., 3:07-cv-495 in federal court and a letter from Attorney Cynthia Pollick advising the Court that the matter had been resolved (Ex. A, B); aportion of the videotaped deposition of Michelle Avvisato taken for purposes of the present action (Ex. C); the Complaint filed by Michelle Venturi in Venturi v. Semenza, 07-cv-1252, in the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County and a Praecipe to Discontinue with Prejudice the matter (Ex. D, E); and the Complaint filed by Michelle Venturi in Venturi v. Krenitsky, et al., 3:08-cv-236, in federal court and a Praecipe to Discontinue with Prejudice the matter (Ex. F, G).
It is unclear precisely how Plaintiff wants to use the lawsuits in the present action and the Court is unable to determine in what manner she seeks to "introduce" or "reference" the lawsuits. Further, the Court is unable to ascertain what exactly is meant by "introduction of lawsuits" in as much as absent a verdict and judgment in any such suit, serious questions of admissibility arise with respect to what portions or aspects of the suit or its prosecution are admissible. The Court notes that acomplaint is nothing more than an allegation. Solely on the basis of the allegations of acomplaint, the Court is not prepared to say acomplaint, its disposition, or any of the testimony introduced or documents presented in that litigation, present evidence that would be relevant to this case under Rule 401, permissible under 403, and not otherwise objectionable under any other applicable Federal Rule of Evidence.
To the extent that Plaintiff intends to produce as witnesses in this case the Plaintiffs in the lawsuits which Plaintiff submitted with her motion, Plaintiff has not provided enough information as to their specific testimony that she intends to elicit so as to allow this Court to engage in the necessary assessment of its probative value with respect to the issues in this case, as well as whether the testimony's introduction would run afoul of Federal Rule of Evidence 403.
The Court will therefore defer ruling on Plaintiff's motion.
Plaintiffs motion in limine requests that the Court "issue an Order taking Judicial Notice of a Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System statistic that reflects that in 2012 there were Four Thousand Two Hundred Eighty Four (4, 282) [sic] reported sex offenses against children under the age of Eighteen (18) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." (Doc. 261).
A Court may take judicial notice of adjudicative facts that are not subject to reasonable dispute because they are "generally known within the trial court's territorial jurisdiction" or because they "can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned." Fed. R. Evid. 201(b)(2). "The test whether a `fact' is of the type that is properly the subject of judicial notice under Rule 201 is really one of relevance, whether a reasonable trier of fact might find that the fact being judicially noticed tends to make the existence of any material fact more or less probable." 2 Moore's Federal Rules Pamphlet § 201.5 (Bender). Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, evidence is relevant if "it has any tendency to make afact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence; and ... the fact is of consequence in determining the action." Fed. R. Evid.401.
Preliminarily, the Court cannot take judicial notice of Plaintiffs statement that the 2012 Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System statistic reflects "there were Four Thousand Two Hundred Eighty Four (4, 284) reported sex offenses against individuals under the age of eighteen (18) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2012" (Doc. 262, at 5), because the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System document, attached by Plaintiff as Exhibit Ato her brief in support of the motion, does not reflect this number to be correct. Rather, the document states that there were 4, 284 reported sex offenses against females under the age of 18 in 2012. There were an additional 1, 444 reported sex offenses against males under the age of 18. Thus, the Court cannot grant Plaintiffs request that it take judicial notice of 4, 284 sexual offenses against children reported in 2012 because it is an incorrect statement, directly contradicted by the exhibit provided by Plaintiff.
Even if Plaintiff were to be asking the Court to take judicial notice of either (1) a Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System statistic that re'Rects that in 2012 there were 4, 284 reported sex offenses against females under the age of 18 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; or (2) a Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System statistic that reflects that in 2012 there were 5, 728 reported sex offenses against females and males under the age of 18 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, several problems prevent the Court from taking judicial notice of the statistic.
First, Plaintiff fails to explain how the statistic set forth in the 2012 Report offers relevant information that may aid the jury in determining whether any of the defendants violated Plaintiffs rights under federal or state law. The mere fact that Plaintiff was included in the 2012 Report does not tend to make any fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence, nor does it lend any support to her claims against any of the defendants. The statistic which Plaintiff wishes this Court to take judicial notice of is simply the number of reported sexual offenses. It does not even purport to state how many of the sexual offenses actually occurred. The statistic, by itself, does not tell the jury anything relevant or probative.
Furthermore, as OFHE properly points out, the category of "sexual offense" includes the following:
See Pa. Uniform Crime Reporting System, Annual Report (2012), Introduction, at 7. "Sexual offense" does not include "forcible rape, prostitution and commercialized vice." Id. The category which Plaintiff is attempting to have introduced at trial encompasses far more than the type of actions that she reported were taken against her. This further raises the issue of the statistic's relevance and raises an issue of confusing or misleading the jury about the purpose and meaning of the reported number.
Although it is undisputed that Plaintiff reported the incidents against the individual defendants in 2012, the actual alleged sexual conduct took place between 2004 and 2007. Therefore, it appears Plaintiffs attempted use of the 2012 statistic is based solely on the fact that it was in that year that she reported the incident. However, the statistic clearly conflates the number of individuals who may have been victims in 2012 and immediately reported it with those who may have been victimized several years before and did not report it until later. The 2012 statistic does not shed any light on the actual number of individuals who were victims of sexual offenses in 2012, nor does it demonstrate the number of individuals under 18 who were the victims of sexual offenses in the same year or years that Plaintiff was allegedly victimized.
The number of individuals under the age of 18 who reported a "sexual offense" has no bearing on whether the incidents that Plaintiff claims took place actually occurred or whether the Borough or OFHE should be held liable in some way. Rather, and in light of the broad definition of "sexual offense", given the information presently before the Court, the statistic appears to be both irrelevant and to the extent it has any relevance, it would be substantially outweighed by adanger of unfair prejudice to the defendants and of confusing and misleading the jury. The Court will therefore deny with prejudice Plaintiffs motion.
Plaintiffs next motion in limine asserts that she is entitled to an adverse inference arising from OFHE's failure to produce records that OFHE asserts went missing (Doc. 264). Plaintiffs motion and accompanying brief fail to specify the contents of the documents or records that she asserts are missing and entitle her to an adverse inference. Nor does Plaintiff explain the relevance of the documents or how they would, or could, support her state law claims against the OFHE.
Notably, however, a review of the exhibits attached to Plaintiffs brief, including the Objections and Answers of OFHE to Plaintiffs Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents (Doc. 266, Ex. F) as well as the "Discovery Supplementation" by OFHE (Doc. 266, Ex. K) shed some light on what documents are at issue.
The issue of missing documents here arises `from certain interrogatories and production of document requests by Plaintiff directed at the OFHE. Addressing certain inadequate responses provided by the OFHE, the Court directed that the requests and interrogatories at issue be supplemented (see Doc. 76). Accordingly, the OFHE provided Plaintiff with a"Discovery Supplementation" (Doc. 266, Ex. K). In the supplementation, prior to addressing the specific requests that the Court had deemed insufficient, counsel for the OFHE explained why certain information and documents were not, and could not, be produced. OFHE's counsel explained that:
(Doc. 266, Ex. K, at 1-2).
Following the above quoted statement, the OFHE addressed each document request that needed supplementation. A review of this Discovery Supplementation reveals that the documents which purportedly disappeared may have consisted of the following:
(Id. at 2-4).
The general principles regarding inferences to be drawn from the loss or destruction of one or more documents are well-established in the Third Circuit. Brewer v. Quaker State Oil Refining Corp., 72 F.3d 326, 334 (3d Cir. 1995). "When the contents of adocument are relevant to an issue in acase, the trier of fact generally may receive the fact of the document's nonproduction or destruction as evidence that the party that has prevented production did so out of the well-founded fear that the contents would harm him." Id. Spoliation therefore occurs where: "the evidence was in the party's control; the evidence is relevant to the claims or defenses in the case; there has been actual suppression or withholding of evidence; and, the duty to preserve the evidence was reasonably foreseeable to the party." Bull v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 665 F.3d 68, 73 (3d Cir. 2012). The party asserting that spoliation has occurred has the burden of establishing these elements. See Sarmiento v. Montclair State Univ., 513 F.Supp.2d 72, 94 (D.N.J. 2007), aff'd, 285 F.App'x 905 (3d Cir. 2008); Gentex Corp. v. Sutter, 827 F.Supp.2d 384, 390 (M.D. Pa. 2011).
Here, OFHE does not dispute that "up until the time the records in question went missing, they were in OFHE's possession." (Doc. 293, at 7). However, OFHE asserts that Plaintiff cannot show that the other three elements have been established. (Id.).
Although Plaintiff properly enumerated the factors that must be shown to establish spoliation (see Doc. 266, at 6), she fails to apply any of the facts of this case to the factors or explain how these elements have been met. With respect to how the missing evidence is relevant to her claims or defenses in this case, Plaintiff presents no argument and thus the Court is at acomplete loss to determine even the possible relevance of the documents. It is clear that Plaintiff has not shown any nexus between the missing documents and their relevance to this action, and specifically any of the remaining claims. Therefore, Plaintiff has not carried her burden of establishing the second necessary element to demonstrate spoliation.
With respect to the third element of spoliation, when determining whether there has been actual suppression or withholding of evidence:
Brewer, 72 F.3d at 334. Afinding of bad faith is therefore "pivotal" when determining whether spoliation occurred. Bull, 665 F.3d at 79.
Although Plaintiff contends that the deposition testimony in this matter "confirms that the ... records in question went missing in or around the time the criminal investigation in this matter occurred" (Doc. 266, at 4), the deposition testimony cited by Plaintiff does not actually support this statement. Rather, the testimony demonstrates that it was discovered that the records were missing in or around May, 2012. (See Doc. 266, at 4-6). Based on the timing of this discovery, Plaintiff asks this Court to infer that the documents must have been intentionally destroyed and
Finally, spOliation requires that there was a duty to preserve the evidence which was reasonably foreseeable to the party. Plaintiff states in a conclusory fashion that the evidence "went missing for no other discernible reason just as the underlying criminal investigation had commenced or, at the very least, at atime when the Defendants clearly knew an investigation was imminent." (Doc. 266, at 8). Again, the deposition testimony cited by Plaintiff does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the documents disappeared at this time. Further, Plaintiff does not explain what discernible reason
For the aforementioned reasons, Plaintiff has failed to show the necessary elements to establish spoliation. Therefore, Plaintiffs motion requesting an adverse inference will be denied.
For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs motions in limine (Docs. 251, 253, 255, 261, 264) will be decided as set forth in this Memorandum Opinion. Aseparate Order follows.
Plaintiffs motion in limine to Exclude all Evidence Pertaining to Plaintiffs Sexual Behavior and Predisposition, Except as they Relate to the Incidents Involved in this Matter (Doc. 259) will be addressed in conjunction with Defendants' Joint Motion for Admission of Certain Evidence Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 412(b){2) (Doc. 315) in aseparate opinion and following a Rule 412 hearing.