Mealey's Daubert
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February 27, 2024
$50M Bond Discharged After Plea Deal Reached In $38M Nursing Home Fraud Case
MIAMI — A Florida federal judge released a $50 million surety bond imposed on the former owner of skilled nursing facilities the day after the judge accepted the man’s guilty plea for conspiracy to commit health care fraud for the man’s role in a $38.7 million health care fraud scheme involving bribing physicians to have patients entered into the facilities he owned.
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February 26, 2024
Texas Appeals Court: Fatal Crash Suit Jury Should Have Heard Expert Testimony
BEAUMONT, Texas — A Texas appeals court overturned a $10 million jury verdict in a wrongful death suit after finding that the trial court improperly excluded expert testimony that a woman who was killed in the crash had alcohol in her system, which might have influenced the jury’s assignment of fault.
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February 22, 2024
N.C. Appeals Court: Expert Evidence On DNA Linking Man To Gun Properly Admitted
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina appeals court upheld a man’s conviction for possession of a firearm by a felon after finding no reversible error in allowing an expert to testify on DNA and how it connected a man to a gun found in a traffic stop.
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February 22, 2024
Medical Condition Not Widely Recognized, Testimony Barred In Toxic Exposure Case
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted in large part three motions to exclude expert testimony in a case in which a woman claims medical injuries from toxic mold exposure, finding that one expert was unqualified to opine on a medical condition and that the testimony from the other witnesses was connected to that expert’s conclusions.
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February 21, 2024
Ohio Federal Judge Denies Dueling Motions To Exclude Experts In Patent Dispute
TOLEDO, Ohio — An Ohio federal judge denied two motions to exclude opposing expert witnesses testifying on how a person of ordinary skill in the art would view the patent infringement dispute involving the design of metal doors.
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February 20, 2024
ASD-ADHD MDL Judge To Consider Causation Expert Retained By New Plaintiffs
NEW YORK — The New York federal judge overseeing the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation on Feb. 16 ordered the parties to file by Feb. 23 their proposed schedule for briefing on whether testimony by a newly named causation expert is admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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February 20, 2024
Supplemental Expert Report Fails To Meet Admissibility Standards, Judge Says
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a renewed motion to exclude an expert witness in a criminal case alleging fraud in connection with the sale of medical devices after finding that the expert did not cure the deficiencies in his proposed testimony to overcome its exclusion under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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February 20, 2024
Expert Cannot Opine On Legal Conclusions In Overtime Spat In Ariz. Federal Court
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Feb. 16 ruled that testimony from an expert witness that “attempts to substitute [the expert’s] own judgment for that of the jury’s” is barred, granting a motion to exclude filed by an operator of a fleet of chauffeured transportation services facing allegations of wage violations from a class of drivers.
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February 16, 2024
No Abuse Of Discretion In Finding Experts Unqualified In Railcar Injury Case
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 15 found that experts retained by a man who was injured while working on a railcar were properly excluded and affirmed summary judgment awarded to the manufacturer of the railcar and its parent company.
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February 15, 2024
Expert Can Testify On Reason For Law Firm Selection In Negligence Coverage Suit
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A pair of insurance brokers accused of improperly advising a trucking company that left it with a coverage gap in an underlying deadly accident case fail in their bid to exclude an expert opining on the reasons a company retained a certain law firm, a Missouri federal judge ruled Feb. 14.
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February 14, 2024
Federal Judge Limits Expert Testimony In Construction Insurance Dispute
DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado granted in part a motion to strike expert testimony filed by one of several insurers accused by another insurer of shirking its responsibility to defend a construction company accused of causing damages to homes through faulty construction, limiting the testimony of two expert witnesses; the judge also granted a second motion to exclude the testimony of a third expert witness, finding his proffered opinions not sufficiently reliable.
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February 14, 2024
6th Circuit Finds No Error In Expert Exclusion That Ended Onglyza MDL
CINCINNATI — The federal judge presiding over the Onglyza multidistrict litigation “had three good reasons to find” that testimony by an expert retained to opine that the drug is capable of causing heart failure was inadmissible, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said Feb. 13, affirming the final judgment entered in the case.
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February 14, 2024
No Error In Testimony From Expert On Reporting Delays By Sexually Abused Children
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota appeals court affirmed a man’s second-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction after finding that the trial court did not err in allowing an expert to opine on the reasons children might delay reporting sexual abuse.
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February 14, 2024
Magistrate Judge Denies Daubert Motions In Mislabeling Suit Against Rust-Oleum
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal magistrate judge denied a plaintiff’s and a defendant’s motions to disqualify each other’s expert witnesses in a class action against Rust-Oleum Corp. for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by deceptively labeling its KRUD KUTTER cleaning products as “non-toxic” and “Earth friendly.”
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February 13, 2024
Government Says Plaintiffs’ Expert In Hawaii Groundwater Case Should Be Excluded
HONOLULU — The U.S. government on Feb. 13 filed a reply brief in Hawaii federal court contending that it should reject the plaintiffs’ circular reasoning and exclude the reports and testimony of one of their experts under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 because he did not follow a traditional Bradford Hill analysis in the groundwater contamination suit filed by residents against the United States.
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February 13, 2024
Human Resources Expert Out In Discrimination, Retaliation Case Filed By Worker
SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on Feb. 12 granted a seafood company’s motion to exclude testimony from an expert retained by a former employee who alleges discrimination and relation charges after finding that “[h]uman resources experts—despite being in a ‘non-scientific’ profession—are not immune from scrutiny under” Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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February 09, 2024
No Exception To Expert Report Service Requirement, Texas Appeals Court Says
EASTLAND, Texas — A woman’s failure to properly serve a copy of her experts’ reports on the defendants in her medical malpractice suit as required under the Texas Medical Liability Act (TMLA) warrants the dismissal of her case, a Texas state appeals court ruled Feb. 8 in reversing a trial court.
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February 08, 2024
No Abuse Of Discretion In Excluding Expert In Crash Case, 2nd Circuit Rules
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 7 affirmed the dismissal of a man’s claim for negligence against United Parcel Service Inc. and one of its employees after a jury returned a defense verdict, finding no error in the court’s decision to exclude an expert witness.
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February 06, 2024
Expert On Forklift Safety Design Excluded; Manufacturer Wins Summary Judgment
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas federal judge granted summary judgment to a forklift manufacturer in a personal injury suit after finding that the expert retained by the injured man failed to provide reliable alternative designs that would have prevented the accident.
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February 06, 2024
IPhone Owners’ Experts Deemed Reliable; Antitrust Class Against Apple Certified
SAN FRANCISCO — Almost two years after a group of iPhone owners’ first attempt at class certification was denied, a California federal judge found that they had cured deficiencies in their experts’ testimony, leading her to conclude that the plaintiffs had now satisfied the predominance requirement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3), making class certification appropriate in an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc.
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February 02, 2024
Judge: Expert Out In Use Of Force Case, Testimony Unreliable And Prejudicial
ORLANDO, Fla. — Allowing a correctional expert retained by defendants in an excessive force case “to testify will infuse the trial with prejudice,” a Florida federal judge ruled, finding that the expert’s testimony is unreliable and unhelpful.
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February 02, 2024
Judge Limits Experts, Certifies Class Action For Deceptive ChapStick Label Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a motion to certify a class action asserting California unfair competition law (UCL) violations for deceptive labeling of certain ChapStick products and agreed to exclude dueling experts after finding their testimony irrelevant.
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February 02, 2024
Judge Says Experts Admissible Under Rule 403 But Orders Briefing Under Daubert
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida federal judge said experts in a personal injury suit opining on whether injuries from an accident caused a woman to fail an exam should not be excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 but ordered that a new motion be filed before trial addressing whether the testimony is admissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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February 02, 2024
Judge Sets Date For Change Of Plea After Deal Reached In $38M Care Home Fraud Case
MIAMI — After being advised that a plea agreement had been reached, a Florida federal judge on Feb. 1 issued docket-only orders setting a date for a sentencing and change of plea hearing for a man convicted of fraud, bribery and money laundering in a $38.7 million health care fraud scheme involving bribing physicians to have patients entered into the assisted living and skilled nursing facilities he owned.
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February 01, 2024
Flint Class, Engineering Firms Settle Water Contamination Claims For $25 Million
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The class plaintiffs in the Flint lead-contaminated water litigation have reached a $25 million settlement with three engineering firms that were involved in the decision to switch the city’s water supply to the Flint River, which resulted in the corrosion of pipes, causing lead to leach into local drinking water, a source told Mealey Publications on Feb. 1.