Dallo v. Holland America Line N.V., LLC

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: September 10, 2020
• Docket: 2:19-cv-00865
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

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3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 6 AT SEATTLE 7 MARGARET DALLO, 8 Plaintiff, C19-865 TSZ 9 v. MINUTE ORDER 10 HOLLAND AMERICA LINE, et al., 11 Defendants. 12 The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable 13 Thomas S. Zilly, United States District Judge: (1) The Stipulation of the parties, docket no. 33, to preclude evidence 14 concerning the parties’ wealth and financial condition, including the size of Defendants, is GRANTED. 15 (2) Plaintiff’s Motion in Limine, docket no. 36, to preclude evidence 16 concerning the absence of similar incidents is DENIED. See Forrest v. Beloit Corp., 424 F.3d 344, 358 (3rd Cir. 2005); Stark v. Allis-Chalmers &Nw. Rds., Inc., 2 Wn. App. 399, 17 406 (1970). 18 (3) Defendants’ Motion in Limine No. 1, docket no. 34, to exclude the expert testimony of Dr. Cary Alberstone as it relates to the reasonableness of Plaintiff’s medical 19 bills is DEFERRED to the pretrial conference. Plaintiff’s objections based on the untimeliness of the motion is DENIED. The parties shall be prepared to identify the 20 underlying facts in the record supporting the doctor’s testimony relating to the reasonableness of medical charges. 21 (4) Defendants’ Motion in Limine No. 2, docket no. 35, to exclude the 22 December 19, 2019, expert report and testimony of Joellen Gill is DEFERRED to the 1 pretrial conference. Plaintiff’s objections based on the untimeliness of the motion is DENIED. The Court will rule on the merits of the motion after further briefing. Plaintiff 2 is directed to file a supplemental brief by noon on Thursday, September 17, 2020, not to exceed 10 pages addressing the admissibility of the opinions stated in the Gill report, 3 docket no. 40-1. See Fed. R. Evid. 702; Wells v. Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., 2019 WL 5842921, at *3–4 (D. Utah Nov. 7, 2019). 4 (5) Defendants’ Motion in Limine No. 3, docket no. 38, to exclude evidence of 5 the full amount of medical expenses billed is DENIED. The collateral source rule allows the plaintiff to present evidence of the full amount of the amounts billed if there is 6 evidence of the reasonableness of the bills. See Hayes v. Wieber Enters., Inc., 105 Wn. App. 611, 616 (2001); Gypsum Carriers Inc. v. Handelsman, 307 F.2d 525, 534–35 (9th 7 Cir. 1962); see also Higgs v. Costa Crociere S.P.A. Co., 969 F.3d 1295, 1313–14 (11th Cir. 2020) (in determining the reasonable value of medical services received by a 8 plaintiff, the jury may consider “all relevant evidence, notably including the amount billed, the amount paid, and any expert testimony and other relevant evidence the parties 9 may offer”). (6) The Clerk is directed to send a copy of this Minute Order to all counsel of 10 record. 11 Dated this 10th day of September, 2020. 12 William M. McCool 13 Clerk 14 s/Karen Dews Deputy Clerk 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22