CACI 203 Party Having Power to Produce Better Evidence
California Civil Jury Instructions CACI
203 Party Having Power to Produce Better Evidence
You may consider the ability of each party to provide evidence. If a party provided weaker evidence when it could have provided stronger evidence, you may distrust the weaker evidence.
Directions for Use
An instruction on failure to produce evidence should not be given if there is no evidence that the party producing inferior evidence had the power to produce superior evidence. (Thomas v. Gates (1899) 126 Cal. 1, 6 [58 P. 315]; Hansen v. Warco Steel Corp. (1965) 237 Cal.App.2d 870, 876 [47 Cal.Rptr. 428]; Holland v. Kerr (1953) 116 Cal.App.2d 31, 37 [253 P.2d 88].)
The reference to “stronger evidence” applies to evidence that is admissible. This instruction should not be construed to apply to evidence that the court has ruled inadmissible. (Hansen, supra, 237 Cal.App.2d at p. 877.)
For willful suppression of evidence, see CACI No. 204, Willful Suppression of Evidence.
Sources and Authority
• Power to Produce Better Evidence. Evidence Code section 412.
• Section 412 does not incorporate the “best evidence rule,” but instead deals with “stronger and more satisfactory” evidence. (Largey v. Intrastate Radiotelephone, Inc. (1982) 136 Cal.App.3d 660, 672 [186 Cal.Rptr. 520] (giving of instruction was proper because corporate records concerning date of meeting could have been stronger evidence than recollection of participants several years later).)
• This inference was a mandatory presumption under former Code of Civil Procedure section 1963(6). It is now considered a permissible inference. (See 3 Witkin, California Evidence (4th ed. 2000) § 114, p. 152.)