Insight Equity v. Transitions Optical, Inc.

252 F. Supp. 3d 382, 2017 WL 1900738, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70722
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedMay 9, 2017
DocketNo. 10-cv-635 (RGA)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 252 F. Supp. 3d 382 (Insight Equity v. Transitions Optical, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Insight Equity v. Transitions Optical, Inc., 252 F. Supp. 3d 382, 2017 WL 1900738, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70722 (D. Del. 2017).

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion

Andrews, United States District Judge:

Plaintiff Vision-Ease has sued its competitor, Defendant Transitions Optical, under federal antitrust law.1 Both Vision-Ease and Transitions Optical are in the business of selling photochromic lenses. Photochromic lenses change irom clear to [385]*385tinted and back again depending on the wearer’s environment.

To prove Defendant has violated antitrust law by holding monopoly power and engaging in anti-competitive behavior, Plaintiff has proffered the. expert testimony of Kenneth Baseman. To .prove the opposite, Defendant has proffered the testimony of Dr. Lauren Stiroh. Plaintiff also relies on Donald Nicholson to calculate damages.

Both parties have moved to strike portions of the other’s experts’ testimony. (D.I. 46; D.I. 40). On November 3-4, 2016, I held a Daubert hearing on these motions and took testimony from Mr. Baseman and Dr. Stiroh. (D.1.167; D.1.158).

I. Legal Standard

“[T]he district court acts as a gatekeeper” to ensure that expert testimony is reliable and helpful. Schneider v. Fried, 320, F.3d 396, 404 (3d Cir. 2003). “The primary locus of this obligation is [Federal Rule of Evidence] 702.... ” Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharma., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993). It reads:

A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if:
(a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue;
(b) the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data;
(c) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and
(d) the expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the case.

Fed. R. Evid. 702.

Rule 702, as amended in 2000, codified the Supreme Court’s holding in Daubert. Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp., 350 F.3d 316, 320 (3d Cir. 2003). The Daubert Court rejected the then widely used Frye test. See Daubert, 509 U.S. at 589, 113 S.Ct. 2786. The Frye test required- an expert’s theory or process be “generally accepted as reliable in the relevant scientific community.” Id. at 584, 113 S.Ct. 2786 (internal quotation marks omitted). The test was seen as imposing too “rigid” a requirement. See id. at 588, 113 S.Ct. 2786. This rigidity was “at odds with the liberal thrust of the Federal Rules and their general approach of relaxing traditional barriers to opinion testimony.” Id. at 588, 113 S.Ct. 2786 (internal quotation marks omitted).

A. Burden of Proof

Daubert replaced the Frye test with a “trilogy” of requirements: (1) qualification, (2) reliability, and (3) fit. Schneider, 320 F.3d at 404. My determination that proffered testimony complies with these prerequisites is governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 104(a). Daubert, 509 U.S. at 592, 113 S.Ct. 2786. As such, I must find Dau-bert’s trilogy of requirements is met by a. preponderance of the evidence. In re Paoli R.R. Yard PCB Litig., 35 F.3d 717, 744 (3d Cir. 1994).

On the one hand, this showing requires the party proffering expert testimony do more than make a prima, facie case of reliability. Id. at 743. On the other hand, the “evidentiary requirement of reliability is lower than the merits standard of correctness.” Id. The proffering party does not “have to prove their case twice — they do not have to demonstrate to the judge by a preponderance of the evidence that the assessments of their experts are correct, they only have to demonstrate by a preponderance of evidence that their opinions are reliable.” Id. at 744.

[386]*386B. Qualification

The first prerequisite, qualification, “refers to the requirement that the witness possess specialized expertise.” Schneider, 320 F.3d at 404. While the language of-Daubert is couched in terms of scientific expertise and knowledge, the qualification-requirement as well as the fit and reliability requirements, are imposed on . other, technical or specialized knowledge. Calhoun, 350 F.3d at 321 (citing Kumho Tire, Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 141, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999)).

The Third Circuit has interpreted the qualification, requirement “liberally” and has “eschewed imposing overly rigorous requirements of expertise....” Paoli, 35 F.3d at 741. Generalized qualifications are sufficient, id., but “more specific knowledge is required to support, more specific opinions,” Calhoun, 350 F.3d at 322. In this case, the experts’ qualifications are not, nor could they reasonably be, contested.

C. Reliability

“[A]n expert’s testimony is admissible so long as the process or technique the expert used in formulating the opinion is reliable.” Paoli, 35 F.3d at 742. Reliability does not require certainty. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 590, 113 S.Ct. 2786, but does require “validity,” Paoli, 35 F.3d at 742.

As with all of the Daubert requirements, I have a gatekeeping role to play in assessing the reliability of the expert testimony. “When there is a serious question of reliability of evidence, it is appropriate for the court to exercise to some degree an evi-dentiary screening function.” Paoli, 35 F.3d at 743 (quoting United States v. Downing, 753 F.2d 1224, 1240 n. 21 (3d Cir. 1985)).

That' being said, the Third Circuit has warned that “the reliability requirement must not be used as a tool by which the-court excludes all questionably reliable evidence.” Id. at 744. An expert’s opinion must be founded on good grounds, not perfect ones. Id. I can conclude there are good grounds for the opinion even if I “think[ ]there are better grounds for some alternative conclusion” or that the expert’s methodology “has some flaws such that if they had been corrected, the scientist would have reached a different result.” Id. The Third Circuit has directed that a “judge frequently should find an expert’s methodology helpful even when the judge thinks that the expert’s technique has flaws sufficient to render the conclusions inaccurate.” Id. at 744-45.

D.Fit

Fit is the gravamen of the Daubert challenges at issue in this case.

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252 F. Supp. 3d 382, 2017 WL 1900738, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70722, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/insight-equity-v-transitions-optical-inc-ded-2017.