MURPHY v. BONANNO
| Decision Date | 07 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-CV-341,93-CV-341 |
| Citation | 663 A.2d 505 |
| Parties | Brian Leon MURPHY, Appellant, v. Diane M. BONANNO, Appellee. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
APPEAL FROM THE SUPERIOR COURT, GEORGE W. MITCHELL, J.
Thomas M. O'Malley, Rockville, MD, for appellant.
Gilbert F. Shelsby, Jr., Baltimore, MD, for appellee.
Before SCHWELB, FARRELL, and RUIZ, Associate Judges.
In this appeal from a judgment in favor of the remaining plaintiff-appellee for assault and battery, trespass, and infliction of emotional distress, appellant challenges primarily the trial judge's refusal to allow cross-examination of his estranged wife (one of the two plaintiffs) regarding prior acts that appellant argues bore directly on her veracity as a witness/complainant in the present case. We hold that the judge erred in excluding this evidence at the threshold as irrelevant. We do not direct a new trial, however, but vacate the judgment and remand for further consideration by the judge of the admissibility of the evidence in light of the principles discussed in this opinion.
On July 12, 1991, a criminal jury found Brian Leon Murphy, appellant in this case, guilty of two counts of assault and one count of unlawful entry.1 The charges arose from events involving Mr. Murphy, his then-wife Elizabeth A. Murphy, and Diane M. Bonanno at the dwelling of Bonanno on June 21, 1990.
On June 20, 1991, Bonanno and Ms. Murphy filed a civil complaint in Superior Court stemming from the June 21 events. The complaint, and a September 25, 1991 amended complaint, sought damages for assault and battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, trespass, trespass to chattel/conversion, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On September 11, 1991, Mr. Murphy counterclaimed against Ms. Murphy and Bonanno seeking damages for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and conversion.
A jury trial began on December 14, 1992. On December 16, after all the evidence had been presented, Judge George W. Mitchell dismissed all three causes of action in the counterclaim and all of the plaintiffs' claims except assault and battery, trespass, and infliction of emotional distress.2 The jury returned a verdict for Bonanno on all three of her claims, for Ms. Murphy on her claims of assault and battery and infliction of emotional distress, and for Mr. Murphy on Ms. Murphy's claim of trespass. The jury awarded Bonanno $7,500 compensatory damages and $15,000 punitive damages for trespass, $7,500 compensatory damages and $15,000 punitive damages for assault and battery, and no compensatory or punitive damages for infliction of emotional distress. Ms. Murphy received similar damages. Following denial of Mr. Murphy's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a new trial, and his notice of appeal as to both judgments, the Murphys settled their suit and the appeal was dismissed as to Ms. Murphy, leaving only Mr. Murphy's appeal as to Bonanno for resolution by this court.
Plaintiffs' evidence at trial established that the Murphys married in 1976 but became estranged in the mid-1980's. In the first half of 1990, there were times when, rather than stay at the Murphys' Woodbridge, Virginia home, Ms. Murphy resided with her friend Bonanno.
On the evening of June 21, 1990, Ms. Murphy was spending the night at Bonanno's house. At about 10:00 p.m., there was a knock at the door. Ms. Murphy testified that she approached the door, turned the lock, and started to open the door; at that point, Mr. Murphy "burst into the house." He was carrying a shotgun or a rifle and appeared to be "extremely angry"; he also had a gun in his right rear pocket. After throwing Ms. Murphy down onto a marble table, he pumped the shotgun and "put the gun in [Ms. Murphy's] stomach." He screamed obscenities at her, called her a "whore" and a "prostitute," and accused her of having extramarital affairs. As a result of the attack, Ms. Murphy sustained bruises on her back, legs, and buttocks. Mr. Murphythen entered Bonanno's bedroom while holding his rifle with both hands; he screamed that Bonanno was running a "whore house."
Mr. Murphy walked Ms. Murphy out of the house while pointing the rifle at her, and told her, "You're going with me." She agreed to accompany him, but persuaded him to let her take her own car. Mr. Murphy apparently drove off in his truck while Ms. Murphy entered her car and locked the door. She then ran back into Bonanno's house and called the police.
Mr. Murphy presented a very different version of events. According to his witnesses, near 10:00 p.m. on June 21, Brian Murphy, his father Robert Murphy, and Pete Harner congregated at a Kensington shop owned by Brian Murphy. Mr. Murphy knew that his wife was staying at Bonanno's house that evening. The three men agreed to drive to Bonanno's house, since Murphy was "extremely upset" and "wanted to confront [his wife] with [certain] information that [he] had." He also wanted "to get back in touch with his wife and talk to her," because "apparently their marriage had fallen apart."
Murphy and his father drove to Bonanno's home in Brian's truck; Harner followed in his van. Brian did not have a handgun on his person, but a shotgun that he owned was in the rear of his truck because "it was always" there. Brian stopped his truck and parked in front of Bonanno's house. Robert Murphy left the truck, crossed the street, and hid behind a tree. Harner stopped his van two or three car lengths past Brian's truck and stayed in the van. Murphy approached Bonanno's house, not carrying a gun, but instead carrying a tape recorder.3 He knocked on the front door and the door opened; he did not push it open. He then entered.
Ms. Murphy appeared to be "very upset," and she and Brian began shouting at each other. Ms. Murphy stumbled on the rug and fell backwards onto the coffee table. Brian asked her if there were any men in the house, and accused her of having an affair. Bonanno "asked Brian to come in[to Bonanno's room] and check to make sure there [were] no men in there." He then walked into Bonanno's room. At no time that evening did he push or strike his wife.
After Murphy had been in Bonanno's house for five or ten minutes, his wife left the house and he followed her. The couple stood by the front fender of Brian's truck and "had a discussion," which ended with him telling her, "Well, I can't make you." She crossed the street, entered her car, and started the engine. When Robert Murphy emerged from behind the tree, he and Brian drove off in Brian's truck, and Harner left the scene as well.
Appellant's principal claim on appeal, and the only one we discuss in detail, is that the trial judge erred in refusing on relevance grounds to permit cross-examination of Ms. Murphy about several prior instances of asserted conduct reflecting poorly on her veracity as a witness.4 As pointed out above, the judgment as to Ms. Murphy is not before us on appeal. It is undeniable, however, that she was a crucial witness at trial in respect to Bonanno's claims against appellant as well. First, Bonanno lacked personal knowledge of whether Ms. Murphy consented to her husband's entry of the home; only the wife was an eyewitness to the asserted trespass into the home on which the jury's award to Bonanno was partly based. Second, although the issue of whether Murphy assaulted his wife is not directly before us, Ms. Murphy's testimony about her husband's violence towardher following entry of the house corroborated Bonanno's testimony about the assault on her, in which appellant entered her bedroom brandishing a rifle and accused her of running a "whore house." In addition, Ms. Murphy testified about her husband's formidable collection and frequent possession of the type of weapons he allegedly wielded in assaulting both Bonanno and Murphy. As Bonanno witnessed far less of Mr. Murphy's conduct in the house than Ms. Murphy related in her testimony, we cannot brush aside appellant's challenge to the restrictions on cross-examination as mooted by the dismissal of the appeal as to Ms. Murphy. We therefore turn to the claimed suppression of proper impeachment.
In the course of cross-examining Ms. Murphy, appellant sought permission to cross-examine her about three prior actions of his wife which he claimed bore significantly on her veracity and her motive in bringing the present suit for damages.5 First, appellant proffered that at an unidentified time in the past, a creditor-bank had demanded extra collateral on a loan incurred by Ms. Murphy. In response, she had pledged her husband's automotive company, Car Doctor, as collateral and given the bank a financial statement purporting to state the value of the company when, according to appellant, she "had no knowledge as to what the value of Car Doctor was."
Perhaps more significantly, appellant proffered evidence that on two occasions (again unidentified by date) he and Ms. Murphy had occupied the same automobile and been involved in accidents from which neither suffered injury. Nevertheless, in each case Ms. Murphy submitted a "false and fraudulent" claim with an insurance company, apparently for injuries, and received payments of $33,000 and $5,000, respectively.
Third, appellant proffered that "a certain doctor" had once loaned Ms. Murphy $50,000 and that five years later, when she had made no payments, the financially troubled doctor sought repayment. Ms. Murphy instead invited him to "the apartment" promising to give him a paper covering the loan, but then endeavored to "forc[e]" a settlement by accusing him of "sexual harassment" or "sexual assault." She and the doctor then indeed entered a settlement concerning the debt. Appellant argued that the present suit was yet another instance of Ms. Murphy's attempting to "extort" payment falsely through the vehicle of a lawsuit.
The trial judge sustained...
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