Civil Practice: Juror Nondisclosure-Discovery Sanction-Witness Testimony

Staff Report//November 1, 2019

Where appellants challenged a judgment against them for actual and punitive damages arising from a fist fight in a bar parking lot, the trial court did not err in failing to grant a new trial based on juror nondisclosure because jurors’ failure to disclose that they were Facebook friends with the respondents was not intentional nondisclosure because the jurors fully answered the voir dire question, which did not ask about social media but inquired only as to whether the parties knew each other, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow a witness to testify as a discovery sanction for failing to appear at a deposition after being properly subpoenaed.

Judgment is affirmed.

Burns v. Taylor (MLW No. 74064/Case No. WD81828 – 17 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Witt, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Linn County, Redington, J. (R. Gregory Harrison, North Kansas City, for appellants) (Brandon F. Greer, Chillicothe, for respondents).