Issues in Motion in Limine Deferred By Court Until Trial Must Be Formally Raised Again At Trial

In the case of Wingate v. McGrath, April Term 2019, No. 04637 (C.P. Phila. Co. March 28, 2024 Powell, S.J.), the trial court issued a Rule 1925 Opinion addressed to the Superior Court and requested the Superior Court to reverse the trial court’s previous decision to grant the Plaintiffs a new trial.  

The trial court made this request in this Opinion after the trial court revisited the issue and found that the Plaintiffs had waived their objections to the Defendant’s medical expert witness by failing to renew the issues raised in the Plaintiff’s Pre-Trial Motion In Limine until after that expert for the defense had testified at trial.

According to the Opinion, this case arose out of a motor vehicle accident matter. During discovery, the Defendant produced reports from medical expert who offered an opinion that the Plaintiff’s back pain complaints were unrelated to the accident.

Prior to trial, the Plaintiff filed a Motion In Limine to preclude the Defendant’s expert from testifying. The trial court issued an Order indicating that the motion would be decided at the time of trial. 

However, at trial, the Plaintiff did not restate the issues raised in their Motion In Limine until after the jury had heard the testimony from the Defendant’s medical expert. 

The jury entered a defense verdict.

Although the trial court had initially granted the Plaintiff a new trial after the entry of the defense verdict, in the post-trial proceedings, the trial court ruled in this Rule 1925 Opinion for the Superior Court's review that, under Pennsylvania law, where a decision on a Motion In Limine is deferred by the trial court until the time of trial, a party who presented such a motion is obligated to restate the issues raised at trial in order to have them formally addressed by the trial court.   According to the law cited by this trial court, the failure to re-raise the Motion in Limine issues in a timely fashion at trial results in a waiver of those issues. 

In this regard, the trial court cited to the Pennsylvania Superior Court decision in the case of Blumer v. Ford Motor Co., 20 A.3d 1222, 1223 (Pa. Super. 2011).

As such, in this Rule 1925 Opinion, the trial court requested the Superior Court to reverse the trial court Order that granted the Plaintiff a new trial.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.


Source: “The Legal Intelligencer Common Pleas Case Alert,” Law.com (June 26, 2024).