Court Addresses Admissibility of Allegedly Cumulative Expert Testimony in Medical Malpractice Case

In the case of Evans v. Lavallee, No. CV 20-00879 (C.P. Lyc. Co. 2022 Carlucci, J.), the court granted in part and denied in part a Plaintiff’s Motion In Limine relative to the testimony of defense medical expert in a medical malpractice case.

According to the Opinion, this matter arose out of an accident during which the Plaintiff sustained burns when oxygen was allegedly caused to ignite, resulting in burns to the Plaintiff during the course of a surgery.    

The Plaintiffs argued that the expert testimony of the expert in question should be precluded because the expert report was provided after the deadline for experts had expired, because the expert was not of an appropriate specialty, and because the expert testimony would be cumulative or duplicative with the testimony of other defense experts.

The court ruled that, in the event the expert is found to be competent at trial, the expert would be allowed to testify in his field of plastic surgery. 

However, the court noted that, unless the Defendants established a need at trial for testimony from this plastic surgeon expert on the separate subject of the operating room standard of care for an anesthesiologist, the plastic surgeon expert testimony would be precluded as cumulative given that the Defendants had other experts to testify in that regard.

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Source: “Digest of Recent Opinions.” Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Feb. 7, 2023).