Zhou v. Unisource Worldwide

In Zhou v. Unisource Worldwide (2007) 157 Cal.App.4th 1471, the plaintiff brought a personal injury action arising out of an automobile accident. The trial court granted the plaintiff's motion to exclude two letters he wrote to an insurance company regarding a second accident, wherein he acknowledged the second accident increased his pain by some degree. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in favor of the plaintiff even though the trial court erred in excluding the letters. The court reasoned that only the letters, not all evidence relating to the second accident, were excluded. (Zhou, supra, 157 Cal.App.4th at p. 1480.) In fact, the plaintiff admitted at trial that the second accident increased his pain by some degree. (Ibid.) It was not reasonably probable, therefore, that the defendants would have achieved a more favorable result in the absence of the erroneous exclusion of the letters. (Id. at p. 1472.) The error thus was not prejudicial. (Id. at p. 1480.)