Mahlandt v. Wild Canid Survival & Research Center, Inc.

Facts

The plaintiff’s child was allegedly attacked by a wolf that the Defendant Poos kept at his house. The Poos’s son retrieved the child and informed the plaintiff of the attack. The plaintiff claimed that the Poos’s son reported that “a wolf got Danny and he is dying.” The son denied this statement. The Defendant Poos attempted to inform Owen Sexton, President of Defendant Wild Canid Survival and Research Center, Inc. of the incident. Poos left Sexton a note on his office door which said the wolf “bit a child that came in our back yard. All has been taken care of. I need to convey what happened to you.” Later that day, Poos tracked down Sexton and alegedly said that “Sophie had bit a child that day.” However, Defendant Poos did not actually have personal knowledge of the attack. Later on, there was a meeting of the Directors of the Defendant Wild Canid Survival and Research Center, Inc. The minutes of the meeting reflected that there was a “great deal of discussion . . . about the legal aspects of the incident of [the wolf] biting a child.” This discussion stemmed from the statements that were made by Mr. Poos. However, none of the board members had personal knowledge of the attack.

At trial, Plaintiff offered Mr. Poos’s note, Mr. Poos’s alleged statement to Mr. Sexton, and an abstract of the minutes of Defendant Wild Canid’s board meeting into evidence. The district court excluded all of this evidence because there was a lack of personal knowledge by the declarant, therefore all of this evidence was hearsay. The district court also held that this evidence should be excluded under Rule 403.