Davis v. Steigerwalt

822 A.2d 22, 2003 Pa. Super. 87, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 354
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 4, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 822 A.2d 22 (Davis v. Steigerwalt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Steigerwalt, 822 A.2d 22, 2003 Pa. Super. 87, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 354 (Pa. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OLSZEWSKI, J.

¶ 1 Roger Steigerwalt (“appellant”) appeals following the order issued by the court below granting a new trial on the issue of survival action damages. The order was entered on the post-trial motion of John and Kathleen Davis (“appellees”) who appeared below asserting claims individually and as co-administrators of the Estate of Erin Davis, their deceased daughter. Denise Prutzman and Edward Metroka, individually and as co-administrators of the estate of Holly Metroka, join the arguments of appellant in part and the arguments of appellees in part. We affirm the decision of the trial court.

¶ 2 As the trial court explained:

[24]*24This action is the result of a fatal motor vehicle accident that occurred on February 10, 1997. [Appellant] was the driver of a 1994 Chevrolet Suburban that collided with a 1993 Mercury Tracer driven by Holly A. Metroka. Erin Lynn Davis, was a passenger in the Metroka vehicle. She and Ms. Met-roka both suffered fatal injuries from the collision. Her parents, [appellees,] asserted claims individually and as co-administrators of her estate, under the Wrongful Death Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8301, and the Survival Act, 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 8302, against [appellant] and Ms. Metroka’s estate.
After a four-day trial, on October 11, 2001, a jury returned a verdict in favor of the [appellees], against both defendants. The jury apportioned causal negligence at ninety percent against Ms. Metroka and ten percent against [appellant]. It then awarded $10,000 in damages in the wrongful death action and $30,000 in the survival action.

Trial Court Opinion, 3/14/02, at 1-2.

¶ 3 Following trial, appellees filed a post-trial motion seeking a new trial on damages. Appellant “opposed that motion and asked that, should a new trial be granted on damages, it should also be granted on liability.” Trial Court Opinion, 5/15/02, at 2. By order dated March 14, 2002, the trial court granted a new trial, but only with respect to damages in the survival action. This appeal followed.

¶ 4 On appeal, appellant argues that the trial court erred in three respects. Appellant first argues that the trial court erred in allowing John Shane, M.D. to testify about the speed of his car (the “Steiger-walt vehicle”). Appellant further argues that the trial court abused its discretion in setting aside the jury verdict. Finally, appellant argues that the trial court erred by limiting the new trial to the issue of damages.

1.

¶ 5 We first address appellant’s argument that the trial court erred in allowing appellees’ expert, John Shane, M.D. to testify about the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle. Dr. Shane testified as an impact pathologist, basing his opinion of the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle on the injuries sustained by Erin Lynn Davis. On this point, appellant blends two issues into one: he seems to be challenging both Dr. Shane’s qualifications to offer an expert opinion, and the validity of the basis of Dr. Shane’s expert opinion.

a.

¶ 6 With regard to Dr. Shane’s qualifications to offer an expert opinion about the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle, Pa.R.E. 702 controls. Rule 702 provides:

If scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge beyond that possessed by a layperson will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill', experience, training or education may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise.

¶ 7 Naturally, neither of the parties to the appeal, nor the trial court, contest the fact that specialized knowledge beyond that possessed by a layperson would be helpful to determine the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle. Testimony about the speed of the vehicle that is not based on actual observation of the accident necessarily relies on technical or other specialized reconstructive knowledge beyond that possessed by a layperson. See, e.g., Haeberle v. Peterson, 262 Pa.Super. 247, 396 A.2d 738 (1978).

¶ 8 Appellant argues, however, that Dr. Shane did not possess the necessary scien-[25]*25tifie, technical or other specialized knowledge required to offer an expert opinion on the issue of the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle. According to appellant, “it is ... clear that [appellees’] medical expert, John J. Shane, M.D. did not, and does not, possess sufficient skill, knowledge, or experience ... such that his opinion as to the speed of the vehicles at the time of the collision would properly aid the jury in resolving the dispute.” Brief for appellant at 14.

¶ 9 The most substantial portion of appellant’s attack on Dr. Shane’s qualifications is that Dr. Shane’s particular expertise did not qualify him to render an expert opinion on the speed of the Steig-erwalt vehicle. According to appellant,

John Shane, M.D. was not offered, and did not testify, as an expert in a ... field of medicine. Rather, he was offered as an expert in pathology, forensics and “impact pathology,” and testified as an accident reconstructionist in rendering an opinion of the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle. Impact pathology, according to [Dr. Shane’s] testimony, is, among other things, the study of force necessary to cause certain injuries.

Id. at 20-21 (emphasis removed and citation to record omitted). Construing the breadth of impact pathology narrowly, and casting doubt on the usefulness of impact pathology in the present case, appellant suggests that

[w]hile he may have been qualified to offer an opinion regarding the force necessary to cause the plaintiffs injuries, John Shane, M.D. was not, and is not qualified to render an opinion on how the accident occurred, including the estimated speed of either of the two vehicles which produced that force.

Id.

¶ 10 Unsatisfied with his minimization of impact pathology, appellant goes further by questioning Dr. Shane’s claims of expertise in the field. “Impact pathology,” appellant points out, “is not on Dr. Shane’s Curriculum Vitae, and he has never published anything in the field of impact pathology.” Id. at 21 n. 2 (citations omitted).

¶ 11 While appellant’s arguments raise relevant considerations for a finder of fact seeking to assign weight to Dr. Shane’s expert testimony, they do not persuade us that the trial court erred in permitting Dr. Shane to offer expert testimony on the speed of the Steigerwalt vehicle.

It is well settled in Pennsylvania that the standard for qualification of an expert witness is a liberal one. The test to be applied when qualifying an expert witness is whether the witness had any reasonable pretension to specialized knowledge on the subject under investigation. If he does, he may testify and the weight to be given such testimony is for the trier of fact to determine.

Von Der Stuck v. Apeo Concrete, 779 A.2d 570, 573 (Pa.Super.2001), appeal denied, 568 Pa. 684, 793 A.2d 909 (2002) (citations omitted). Moreover, “[a]dmission of expert testimony is within the trial court’s discretion and such ruling will not be disturbed unless there has been a clear abuse of that discretion.” Wack v. Farmland Industries,

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Bluebook (online)
822 A.2d 22, 2003 Pa. Super. 87, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-steigerwalt-pasuperct-2003.