Forest Laboratories, Inc. v. Ivax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

237 F.R.D. 106, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50752, 2006 WL 2056494
District Court, D. Delaware·Decided July 25, 2006·No. No. CIV.A. 03-891-JJF·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION CONCERNING EVIDENTIARY ISSUES

FARNAN, District Judge.

During the course of the bench trial in the above-captioned action, the Court reserved judgment on several evidentiary objections raised by the parties. The parties have briefed their respective positions, and this Memorandum Opinion constitutes the Court’s rulings with regard to the pending evidentiary matters.

I. PLAINTIFFS’ POST-TRIAL EVI-DENTIARY OBJECTIONS

A. Defendants’ Demonstrative Exhibits

Plaintiffs object to the admission of Defendants’ demonstrative exhibits into evidence. They point to an Order of the Court dated March 9, 2006, stating that “[ujnless otherwise agreed to by the parties, demonstrative exhibits are marked for identification but not admitted into evidence.” (D.I. 570 at 2-3.) Plaintiffs state that the parties have not agreed to admit the exhibits into evidence and contend that the exhibits should thus be excluded.

Defendants have not filed a response to this objection. Accordingly, the Court will sustain Plaintiffs’ objection pursuant to the Court’s March 9 Order.

B. Dr. Burke’s Testimony Regarding Salts in Example 2 of the ’590 Patent.

Plaintiffs challenge Dr. Burke’s testimony regarding the salts in Example 2 of the ’590 patent as inadmissible because Dr. Burke’s opinions in this regard were not disclosed to Plaintiffs in his expert report, in his sworn declaration or during his deposition. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B) requires that all expert testimony be accompanied by a written report containing “all the opinions to be expressed and the basis and reasons therefor,” as well as all data and information to be considered by the expert witness and any exhibits to be used in support of his testimony.

The exclusion of critical evidence under Rule 37(c)(1) is an extreme sanction, not imposed absent a showing of willful deception and flagrant disregard of a court order by the proponent of the evidence. Meyers v. Pennypack Woods Home Ownership Ass’n, 559 F.2d 894, 905 (3d Cir.1977). Here, there is no allegation that Defendants acted in bad faith or with the intent to “mislead or confuse” Plaintiffs. Id. Furthermore, the Court is persuaded that Paragraph 24 of Dr. Burke’s expert report sufficiently disclosed [111]*111the opinions Dr. Burke testified about at trial, and that any deviations were not such as to unduly prejudice Plaintiffs. Accordingly, the Court will overrule Plaintiffs’ objection.

C. Dr. Gelenberg’s Testimony Regarding Medical Literature and Accompanying Exhibits

Plaintiffs object to the inclusion of a number of exhibits related to Dr. Gelenberg’s testimony on the grounds that they are a) inadmissible hearsay under Federal Rule of Evidence (“FRE”) 802, b) irrelevant under FRE 402, and c) lacking foundation under FRE 901.

DTX 1197, 1156, 1238, 1213 and 1221 are internal e-mails sent among employees of Plaintiffs, used by Dr. Gelenberg to support his testimony that published articles overstated the benefits of (+ )-eitalopram because data was selectively chosen to obtain the desired result. Defendants contend that the exhibits are not hearsay because they are party admissions within the meaning of FRE 801 and that even if they meet the definition of “hearsay” they fall under the “then-existing state of mind” and “records of regularly conducted activities” exceptions under FRE 803. According to Defendants, the exhibits are evidence that may properly be considered by an expert under FRE 703 even if they are not otherwise admissible. Furthermore, Defendants argue that the exhibits do not lack foundation under the Amended PreTrial Order which stipulates that “[a]ny document that on its face appears to have been authored by an employee, officer or agent of a party shall be deemed prima facie to be authentic, subject to the right of the party against whom such a document is offered to adduce evidence to the contrary.” (D.I.526.) Defendants also contend that the exhibits are directly related to the issues in the case and serve to impeach Plaintiffs’ testimony, and are thus relevant. Finally, Defendants point out that Plaintiffs did not object to the documents at trial based on relevance grounds, and therefore, their objection is waived.

The Court concludes that the exhibits are not hearsay under FRE 801(d)(2)(D), which provides that “[a] statement is not hearsay if ... [t]he statement is offered against a party and is a statement by the party’s agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or employment, made during the existence of the relationship.” The correspondence constituting the exhibits is between employees of one or more of the Plaintiffs and is within the scope of their employment. The Court further concludes that the exhibits do not lack foundation under the Amended Pre-Trial Order, because they fall within its bounds, and Plaintiffs have not offered any evidence to indicate that the correspondence is not genuine. In light of the prima facie authentication contained in the Amended Joint Pretrial Order, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ objection that the documents are irrelevant because “the comments alleged to be made by others and put forth in the document cannot be verified” (D.I. 598 at A-2, # 3) is without merit. Accordingly, the Court will overrule Plaintiffs’ objections to these documents.

D. Dr. Gelenberg’s Testimony Regarding the Effects of Marketing on Physicians’ Prescribing Habits

Plaintiffs object to Dr. Gelenberg’s testimony opining that drug marketing has an effect on physicians’ prescribing habits (Tr. 557:23 — 561:21) on the grounds that Dr. Gelenberg is not qualified as an expert on this subject and does not possess any marketing or business degrees, and therefore, his testimony on this issue will not be of use to the Court in understanding the issues in this case. Defendants reply that Dr. Gelenberg has extensive experience as a clinical psychiatrist, supervisor of numerous clinical practices, and editor of well-respected peer-reviewed journals, which qualifies him to testify on the subject of the prescribing habits of psychiatrists.

FRE 702 provides that an expert witness must be qualified by “knowledge, skill, experience, training or education.” The “fundamental requirement for qualifying an expert” is the helpfulness of the expert’s testimony to the finder of fact. Stephen A. Saltzburg et al,

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Forest Laboratories, Inc. v. Ivax Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 237 F.R.D. 106, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50752, 2006 WL 2056494 (D. Del. 2006).

237 F.R.D. 106 (Forest Laboratories, Inc. v. Ivax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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