Boucher v. CVS/Pharmacy, Inc.

822 F. Supp. 2d 98, 2011 DNH 186, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130082, 2011 WL 5401906
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedNovember 9, 2011
DocketCivil No. 10-cv-328-JL
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 822 F. Supp. 2d 98 (Boucher v. CVS/Pharmacy, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boucher v. CVS/Pharmacy, Inc., 822 F. Supp. 2d 98, 2011 DNH 186, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130082, 2011 WL 5401906 (D.N.H. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

JOSEPH N. LaPLANTE, District Judge.

This case arises from injuries, including a pelvic fracture, that plaintiff Carol Boucher suffered after slipping on ice and snow that had accumulated in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy in Manchester, New Hampshire. Boucher and her husband brought suit against the owners of both the pharmacy business, CVS/Pharmacy, Inc., and the premises, Marjam Supply Company, Inc., asserting claims for negligence and loss of consortium. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that CVS and Marjam failed to exercise reasonable care in maintaining the area around the pharmacy and failed to warn customers of the snow and ice in the parking lot.

CVS and Marjam deny those allegations and claim that Boucher’s own negligence contributed to the accident. In addition, CVS and Marjam have filed a third-party complaint against Amoskeag Maintenance Services, LLC, the company they hired to remove snow and ice from the premises, claiming that if they are found to have been negligent, then Amoskeag should be held responsible for all or part of the damages. Amoskeag denies any liability. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 14. This court has subject-matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1) (diversity).

The parties have moved in limine to exclude various types of evidence at the upcoming jury trial. See L.R. 16.2(b)(3). Amoskeag has moved to exclude evidence that Boucher suffered any permanent injuries as a result of her fall, while CVS and Marjam have moved to exclude photographs of the parking lot that were taken two weeks after the fall. Plaintiffs, in turn, have moved to exclude evidence of Boucher’s prior and subsequent falls, evidence of the fact that there had been no other reports of customers slipping and falling on the ice and snow in the parking lot, evidence of Boucher’s medical history prior to her fall, and evidence of Boucher’s use of a cane. After reviewing the parties’ submissions, this court rules on the motions in limine as set forth below.

I. Evidence of permanent injuries

Amoskeag has moved to exclude any evidence or argument that Boucher sustained permanent injuries or will require future medical treatment as a result of her fall, arguing that plaintiffs failed to provide any expert disclosure under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(C) as these issues. Amoskeag contends that under Rule 37(c)(1), plaintiffs must be precluded from offering any expert testimony on these issues because their failure to provide such a disclosure was neither substantially justi[102]*102fied nor harmless.1 See Westerdahl v. Williams, 276 F.R.D. 405, 409-10 (D.N.H. 2011); Aumand v. Dartmouth Hitchcock Med. Ctr., 611 F.Supp.2d 78, 89-90 (D.N.H.2009).

Plaintiffs did not file an opposition to Amoskeag’s motion. In a telephone conference with the court on October 14, 2011, their counsel disclaimed any intention of presenting expert testimony that Boucher had suffered permanent injury or would require future treatment as a result of her fall. Accordingly, Amoskeag’s motion in limine is granted. Plaintiffs may not offer expert testimony on these issues at trial. This conclusion is without prejudice to plaintiffs’ ability to offer their own testimony as to how Boucher’s fall has affected her.

II. Parking lot photographs

CVS and Marjam have moved to exclude photographs of the parking lot where Boucher fell. Boucher’s husband took the photographs in question two weeks after she fell. They depict snow and ice around the curb in the area of the fall. At his deposition, Boucher’s husband admitted that the photographs did not accurately represent the condition of the parking lot on the day of the fall. He testified that the snow in the photographs was “fluffier” than on the day of the incident and appeared to have been plowed; further, while the snow and ice was “even with the curbing” on the day of the incident, the snow and ice in the photographs was not. At deposition, third-party witness Melissa Carver corroborated this testimony, stating that the snow and ice in the photographs appeared to be “more fresh” than the snow and ice present on the day of the incident. CVS and Marjam argue that the different conditions portrayed render the photographs irrelevant and unduly prejudicial to the defendants. See Fed.R.Evid. 402, 403. They also argue that the parties possess other photographs, which do not depict ice and snow in the parking lot, that they can use to show the jury the area.

Under Federal Rule of Evidence 403, the court may exclude relevant evidence “if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of issues or misleading the jury or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.” The photographs have some probative value, insofar as they depict the location where Boucher fell. The dangers of unfair prejudice and of confusing or misleading the jury, however, outweigh this limited probative value.

At issue in this case is whether the defendants exercised reasonable care in maintaining the parking lot on the day Boucher was injured. The accumulation of ice and snow alongside the curb in the parking lot on that day is directly relevant to that inquiry. Unfortunately, neither party has proffered photographs depicting the lot on that day. Because the photographs taken by Boucher’s husband depict an accumulation of ice and snow alongside the curb in the same parking lot, albeit on a different day, there is a substantial risk that the jury would become confused in thinking that those pictures represented how the parking lot looked on the day Boucher fell — even if instructed otherwise. But these photographs depict materially different conditions than those that existed on the day of the incident. To prevent this [103]*103danger of confusion in the jury’s mind, the photographs must be excluded. Cf. BNSF Ry. Co. v. LaFarge Sw., Inc., No. 06-1076, 2009 WL 4279862, *2 (D.N.M. Feb. 15, 2009) (holding that photographs that misrepresented the appearance of the scene of an accident were inadmissible “because whatever minimal probative value can be obtained from such distorted images is substantially outweighed by the danger of misleading or confusing the jury”); Minter v. Prime Equip. Co., No. CIV-02-132-KEW, 2007 WL 2703093, *4 (E.D.Okla. Sept. 14, 2007) (“[Wjhere photographs are represented to portray the condition of a thing, in order to be relevant and admissible, [the proponent] will bear the burden of demonstrating the photographs taken subsequent to the accident represent the condition of the [thing] at the time of the accident.”). In addition, given the poorly-maintained condition of the parking lot in the photographs, there is a risk that the jurors may want to “punish” defendants for failing to properly maintain the parking lot on that later occasion. See United States v. Thompson, 359 F.3d 470

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Bluebook (online)
822 F. Supp. 2d 98, 2011 DNH 186, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130082, 2011 WL 5401906, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boucher-v-cvspharmacy-inc-nhd-2011.