Mealey's Daubert
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January 20, 2021
Rebuttal Witness Can Testify On Causation, Need For Treatment In Injury Case
LAS VEGAS — Noting that a “district court does not determine whether the expert is right or wrong, but whether the testimony would be helpful,” a Texas federal magistrate judge on Jan. 19 largely allowed testimony from a rebuttal expert witness in a slip-and-fall case.
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January 20, 2021
Automaker Can’t Secure Exclusion Of Asbestos Experts, Cumulative Exposure Opinions
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Three experts in an asbestos action adequately ground their opinions in science and the facts of the case, and their cumulative exposure opinions differ sufficiently from the rejected opinion that every exposure leads to disease, a federal judge in Connecticut said Jan. 18 in admitting the experts and denying a defendant company summary judgment.
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January 20, 2021
Federal Magistrate: Some Expert Testimony Inadmissible In Tax Assessment Row
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal magistrate judge in Texas on Jan. 15 limited the expert testimony proposed by a Texas city that is defending itself in a suit filed by residents who dispute the assessments that the city levied against property owners in a public improvement district.
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January 20, 2021
Texas Federal Judge Denies Motion To Exclude In Insurance Coverage Dispute
SAN ANTONIO — Efforts to exclude an expert who will testify that hail caused substantial damage to roofs of car dealerships failed Jan. 15 when a federal judge in Texas denied the insurance company’s motion to exclude.
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January 19, 2021
Class Action Alleges Fraud For Allstate’s Use Of ‘Unqualified’ ‘Expert’ Witnesses
HOUSTON — A law firm on Jan. 14 filed a class action petition in a Texas court alleging fraud and civil conspiracy against Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. and three of its “expert” witnesses, alleging that the insurer repeatedly hires “unqualified people to prepare so-called controverting affidavits in areas” in which “they have no knowledge, skill, training, education, or experience.”
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January 19, 2021
Washington Federal Judge Limits Testimony Of Medical Expert In Surgical Mesh Case
TACOMA, Wash. — A medical expert in a surgical mesh product liability case may not testify as to the implanting physician’s state of mind but may opine on whether the device has degraded or deformed, a Washington federal judge ruled Jan. 14 in a case transferred from a multidistrict litigation.
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January 19, 2021
Expert Can’t Speak On Legal Issue, Other Testimony OK’d In Suit Against Employer
TAMPA, Fla. — An expert witness for a doctor who claims that he was forced to quit after witnessing fraudulent activity by his former employer may testify as to the regular customs of rehabilitation hospitals but is barred from opining that the working conditions were “professionally intolerable,” a Florida federal judge ruled Jan. 14.
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January 15, 2021
Judge Delivers Mixed Result For Challenges To Experts In Water Damage Dispute
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Jan. 11 partly granted and partly denied a manufacturer’s motion to exclude expert testimony under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a case where a man claims that a defective pressure regulator failed to prevent a spike in water pressure that led to a burst pipe that caused more than $280,000 damage to a home.
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January 15, 2021
UCL Claim Over Social Network’s Data Breach Axed; Negligence Claim Survives
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The last remaining plaintiff in a putative class action against social network operator Quora Inc. saw her lawsuit trimmed to just a single claim for negligence over a 2018 data breach on Dec. 21, when a California federal judge granted summary judgment to the defendant on a claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), finding the negligence claim to be an adequate remedy at law to address the plaintiff’s claimed damages.
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January 14, 2021
Missed Deadlines Doom Expert Testimony In Burn Suit Against Waffle House
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Parents of a boy allegedly burned by hot coffee at a Waffle House restaurant missed the deadline to designate their medical witnesses as experts, a South Carolina federal judge said Jan. 13, and ruled that the doctors’ testimony is limited to their observations and treatment of the child.
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January 13, 2021
7th Circuit Finds Police Officer’s Testimony On Coded Text Messages Proper
CHICAGO — An Illinois district court properly admitted a police officer’s testimony that coded language used in text messages was evidence that a man was involved in illicit drug activity, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 8, affirming the man’s conviction.
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January 12, 2021
Judge Says Cancer Victim’s Experts Valid, Refuses To Dismiss Toxic Exposure Case
OMAHA, Neb. — A federal judge in Nebraska on Jan. 7 denied a motion to dismiss a toxic chemical exposure case and ruled that a cancer victim’s medical experts used methods that are “scientifically valid” and, therefore, they could testify in the case.
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January 12, 2021
Man Accusing NFL Player Of Assault Wins Bid To Exclude Expert Witness
DENVER — An expert retained by a former NFL football player accused of assaulting a photographer cannot testify on the reasonableness of incurred medical expenses after a Colorado federal judge on Jan. 6 found that her testimony does not meet the requirements set by Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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January 11, 2021
Judge Grants Motion To Exclude Medical Experts In Chemical Exposure Case
NEW ORLEANS — Proposed medical experts in a chemical exposure case do not meet the standards set in Daubert to testify as to causation, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Jan. 8, granting a company’s motion to exclude.
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January 11, 2021
2nd Circuit: Court Properly Admitted Expert Testimony In Voting Rights Dispute
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 6 affirmed that a New York school district violated the Voting Rights Act by holding at-large elections for its school board members, agreeing that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting expert testimony, among other findings.
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January 06, 2021
Federal Judge In Louisiana Limits Expert’s Testimony On Barge Fracture
MONROE, La. — A proposed engineering expert’s testimony will be limited in a suit disputing when a fracture in a barge occurred after a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Dec. 28 that the expert lacked the specific training to determine when the fracture occurred.
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January 05, 2021
Full Genetic Testing Of Asbestos Plaintiff Rejected By Illinois Judge
CHICAGO — Science recognizes BAP-1 as the only genetic mutation related to mesothelioma, and even then only in conjunction with other mutations, an Illinois judge said Dec. 30 in denying a motion seeking full genetic testing of an asbestos plaintiff.
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January 05, 2021
Reconsideration Of Class Denied In Kroger Breadcrumbs Labeling Suit
SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California on Dec. 29 declined to reconsider a November order granting certification to a class of California consumers accusing The Kroger Co. of violating California laws, including the unfair competition law (UCL), by labeling certain breadcrumb products with “0g Trans Fat” while they were made with partially hydrogenated oil (PHO).
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January 04, 2021
Expert Testimony Allowed In Lawn Mower Liability Suit, Kansas Federal Judge Says
WICHITA, Kan. — A federal judge in Kansas on Dec. 18 mostly denied a lawn mower manufacturer’s motion to exclude expert testimony proposed by a man who claims that defects in the mower caused an injury.
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January 04, 2021
Slip-And-Fall Case Survives Summary Judgment, But Expert Testimony Is Excluded
ABINGDON, Va. — A proposed liability expert witness in a slip-and-fall lawsuit will offer nothing that would be helpful to a jury, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Dec. 18, granting Walmart’s motion to strike but denying its request for summary judgment.