Kovach v. Central Trucking, Inc.

808 A.2d 958, 2002 Pa. Super. 313, 2002 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2832
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 7, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 808 A.2d 958 (Kovach v. Central Trucking, Inc.) 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
Kovach v. Central Trucking, Inc., 808 A.2d 958, 2002 Pa. Super. 313, 2002 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2832 (Pa. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

DEL SOLE, P.J.

¶ 1 Jim Kovach appeals from the trial court’s order granting Appellee’s motion for summary judgment. Upon review, we reverse and remand.

¶2 This case involves a motor vehicle accident that occurred in January 1994. [959]*959At the time of the accident, Appellant was driving an automobile and Wade Farr, employed by Central Trucking, Inc., was driving a tractor-trailer. Appellant asserts that, as a result of the accident, he sustained injuries.

¶ 3 Appellant filed suit. During discovery, the videotaped deposition of one of Appellant’s treating physicians was taken in preparation for trial. Prior to the scheduled trial, the trial court granted Ap-pellee’s motion in limine and ordered that Dr. Faralli’s deposition be redacted so that it omitted references to “torn meniscus, possible surgical procedures and arthritis.” Appellee filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Appellant could not establish a prima facie case of negligence. The trial court entered summary judgment. This appeal followed.

¶ 4 Appellant presents the following issues for review:

A. Whether Dr. Faralli’s expert opinion regarding the issue of causation was adequately stated to a reasonable degree of medical certainty so as to be properly admissible at trial.
B. Whether Dr. Faralli’s testimony regarding Mr. Kovach’s prognosis and potential need for future surgery should have been admissible as bearing on the issue of Plaintiffs damages.
C. Whether Dr. Faralli’s testimony regarding Mr. Kovach developing arthritis should have been admissible as bearing on the issue of Plaintiffs damages where Defendant was provided fair notice of similar conditions in Dr. Faralli’s pretrial reports.

Appellant’s Brief at 4.

¶ 5 All of Appellant’s claims challenge the trial court’s decision to exclude key portions of Dr. Faralli’s expert opinion from being admitted at trial. This Court has stated:

The admission or exclusion of evidence, including the admission of testimony from an expert witness, is within the sound discretion of the trial court.... We may only reverse upon a showing that the trial court clearly abused its discretion or committed an error of law. To constitute reversible error, an evi-dentiary ruling must not only be erroneous, but also harmful or prejudicial to the complaining party.

McClain v. Welker, 761 A.2d 155, 156 (Pa.Super.2000).

¶ 6 Appellant first argues that the trial court erred in excluding Dr. Faralli’s expert opinion on Appellant’s injury on the basis that Dr. Faralli’s opinion regarding their cause had not been expressed with sufficient certainty. Appellant’s Brief at 8. Appellant maintains that, by excluding this testimony, the trial court effectively eliminated Appellant’s ability to proceed to trial because he could not establish a prima facie case of negligence for consideration by a jury. Id. at 8-9.

¶ 7 With regard to expert testimony, our Supreme Court has held that “[n]o matter how skilled or experienced the witness may be, he will not be permitted to guess or to state a judgment based on mere conjecture.” Collins v. Hand, 431 Pa. 378, 246 A.2d 398, 404 (1968). This Court has reviewed the degree of medical certainty necessary to prove causation and has explained:

When a party must prove causation through expert testimony the expert must testify with “reasonable certainty” that “in his ‘professional opinion, the result in question did come from the cause alleged.’” An expert fails this standard of certainty if he testifies “‘that the alleged cause “possibly”, or “could have” led to the result, that it “could very properly account” for the [960]*960result, or even that it was “very highly probable” that it caused the result.’ ”
“The issue is not merely one of semantics. There is a logical reason for the rule. The opinion of a[n] ... expert is evidence. If the fact finder chooses to believe it, he can find as fact what the expert gave as an opinion. For a fact finder to award damages for a particular condition to a plaintiff it must find as a fact that the condition was legally caused by the defendant’s conduct.... [I]t is the intent of our law that if the plaintiffs ... expert cannot form an opinion with sufficient certainty so as to make a [professional] judgment, there is nothing on the record with which a [factfinder] can make a decision with sufficient certainty so as to make a legal judgment.” However, to make an admissible statement on causation, an expert need not testify with absolute certainty or rule out all possible causes of a condition. Expert testimony is admissible when, taken in its entirety, it expresses reasonable certainty that the accident was a substantial factor in bringing about the injury. The expert need not express his opinion in precisely the same language we use to enunciate the legal standard. That an expert may, at some point during his testimony, qualify his assertion does not necessarily render his opinion inadmissibly speculative.

Cohen v. Albert Einstein Medical Center, Northern Div., 405 Pa.Super. 392, 592 A.2d 720, 723-724 (1991) (citations omitted).

¶ 8 In order to determine whether the trial court erred in excluding this opinion, we must look at Dr. Faralli’s testimony regarding the issue of causation to determine whether it was stated to a reasonable degree of medical certainty.

¶ 9 After stating his clinical findings and Appellant’s treatment history, Dr. Faralli was asked the following question:

[Attorney].... Doctor, could you provide me with your opinion as to the causal relationship between the motor vehicle accident of January 17, 1994 and the conditions for which you treated Mr. Kovach?

Dr. Faralli’s Deposition Transcript at 33-34.

¶ 10 Dr. Faralli responded as follows: [Faralli]. I think this motor vehicle accident did in fact contribute to his knee symptoms. I can’t be absolutely certain what existed in his knees right before the accident, but I think it is clear from ray standpoint that there was a dramatic change in his activity level as a result of the accident. And so I am willing to connect his meniscal pathology to the motor vehicle accident either by virtue of the meniscus being torn directly as a result of his injury or contributed to substantially by virtue of his motor vehicle accident — motor vehicle accident. [Attorney]. When you say contributed to substantially, you mean aggravated substantially by?
[Doctor], Aggravated by, right, exactly. Perhaps there was some underlying preexisting changes. This is after all a guy who’s 41 years old at the time of his injury. You can have some stuff going on in your leg that perhaps was not symptomatic or not even considered symptomatic by the patient which becomes intolerably symptomatic as a result of an injury. So it is possible that— but in my estimation the accident substantially altered and changed what went on in his knew [sic] — in his knees. [Attorney].

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

K.H. v. Kumar, S., M.D
122 A.3d 1080 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015)
Monaco, K. v. Temple University
Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015
Haney v. Pagnanelli
830 A.2d 978 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
808 A.2d 958, 2002 Pa. Super. 313, 2002 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kovach-v-central-trucking-inc-pasuperct-2002.