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State v. United States Steel Corp.6/24/1996
-REF-->480 claim.
Therefore, in view of: (1) our assessment that the amount of potential prejudice, stemming from the challenged instruction, is minimal, even if considered in isolation; and (2) the fact that the challenged instruction was not read in isolation, and any prejudicial effect that the statement that "sellers may promote the quality of their goods" may have had was dissipated when placed in context, we hold that, when read and considered as a whole, the instruction that "sellers may promote the quality of their goods" was not prejudicially insufficient, erroneous, inconsistent or misleading.
3. The Trial Court's Denial of the State's Motion for New Trial and For Sanctions Based on Alleged Discovery Abuse by USX
Finally, the state argues that the trial court erroneously denied its motion for new trial based on alleged discovery abuse by USX. The state asserts that USX continually failed to comply with its discovery obligations by claiming to have turned over all documents requested when the evidence showed that USX had not made a good faith diligent effort to find the requested documents and that documents that were produced later proved that USX had withheld certain documents. USX retorts by asserting that the trial court properly denied the state's motion for new trial because: (1) the state's objections to any impropriety, if any, were untimely; (2) the state has not demonstrated any prejudice; and (3) USX did not violate its discovery obligations. We affirm the trial court's denial of the state's motion for new trial based on the untimeliness of the state's objections.
a. Standard of Review
Both the grant and the denial of a motion for new trial is within the trial court's discretion, and we will not reverse that decision absent a clear abuse of discretion. Richardson [v. Sport Shinko (Waikiki Corp.),], 76 Haw. [494,] 503, 880 P.2d [169,] 178 [(1994)]; see also Stahl v. Balsara, 60 Haw. 144, 152, 587 P.2d 1210, 1215 (1978). An abuse of discretion occurs "where the trial court has clearly exceeded the bounds of reason or disregarded rules or principles of law or practice to the substantial detriment of a party litigant." Amfac, Inc. v. Waikiki Beachcomber Inv. Co., 74 Haw. 85, 114, 839 P.2d 10, 26, reconsideration denied, 74 Haw. 650, 843 P.2d 144 (1992).
Carr v. Strode, 79 Haw. 475, 488, 904 P.2d 489, 502 (1995).
b. The State's Objections to USX's Failures to Produce Documents During Discovery Were Untimely and, Therefore, Are Not A Valid Basis For the Grant of A New Trial.
Both before and during the trial, the state asserted that USX was not fulfilling its duties to produce documents. In particular, on May 3, 1993, the state filed a motion for sanctions against USX for failure to comply with document production requirements, asserting that USX had wilfully failed to produce documents pursuant to the state's requests for discovery. On May 6, 1993, the trial court orally granted in part and denied in part the state's motion, ordering that USX produce all documents relevant to all issues in the case and barring USX from referring to and/or introducing into evidence at trial any document that it had failed to produce in response to the state's discovery requests, as well as prohibiting USX from relying on or commenting on any alleged lack of proper foundation or context or any such partial or incomplete document, should it be introduced at trial.
Subsequently, on August
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