Meade Electric Co Inc v. Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District

Filing 51

ORDER signed by Judge Rudolph T. Randa on 3/3/2014 DENYING 47 Motion in Limine to Exclude Introduction of Certain Evidence. (cc: all counsel) (cb)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
MEADE ELECTRIC COMPANY, Inc.,
Plaintiff,
-vs-

Case No. 12-C-1014

MILWAUKEE METROPOLITAN
SEWERAGE DISTRICT,
Defendant.

DECISION AND ORDER

This matter is set for a bench trial on Meade Electric Company‟s equitable
claim pertaining to its removal of “nearly five million gallons of groundwater from an
„open cut‟ portion of the [underground landfill gas] pipeline nearing the Jones Island
Water Reclamation Facility in downtown Milwaukee.” ECF No. 40, October 16, 2013
Decision and Order, at 1; 2013 WL 5651383, at *1. The defendant, Milwaukee
Metropolitan Sewerage District, moves to exclude the introduction of certain evidence
on the grounds of unfair prejudice and waste of time. Fed. R. Evid. 403.
As one court rather colorfully observed, filing a motion in limine in advance of
a bench trial is “asinine on its face.

Motions in limine are intended to prevent

allegedly prejudicial evidence from being so much as whispered before a jury prior to
obtaining the Court‟s permission to broach the topic. In a bench trial, such procedures
are unnecessary, as the Court can and does readily exclude from its consideration
inappropriate evidence of whatever ilk.” Cramer v. Sabine Transp. Co., 141 F. Supp.

2d 727, 733 (S.D. Tex. 2001). The Court does not agree that all such motions are
unnecessary or pointless. There are “trial management benefits to a motion in limine
that . . . are equally applicable to a bench or jury trial.” Estate of Rick v. Stevens, No.
C 00-4144-MWB, 2002 WL 1713301, at *3 (N.D. Iowa July 2, 2002). But trial
management is of minimal concern in a short, 1-2 day trial of an extremely narrow
issue. Accordingly, there is no need to limit the presentation of evidence from either
party.
MMSD‟s motion in limine [ECF No. 47] is DENIED.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 3rd day of March, 2014.
BY THE COURT:

__________________________
HON. RUDOLPH T. RANDA
U.S. District Judge

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