MOTOROLA INC. v. MICHAEL PATRICK MURRAY

147 A.3d 751, 2016 D.C. App. LEXIS 382, 2016 WL 6134870
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 20, 2016
Docket14-CV-1350
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 147 A.3d 751 (MOTOROLA INC. v. MICHAEL PATRICK MURRAY) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MOTOROLA INC. v. MICHAEL PATRICK MURRAY, 147 A.3d 751, 2016 D.C. App. LEXIS 382, 2016 WL 6134870 (D.C. 2016).

Opinions

Concurring opinion by Associate Judge EASTERLY at page 759.

[752]*752Fisher, Associate Judge:

For decades this court has used the Dyas/Frye test1 to govern the admissibility of expert testimony. We now are sitting en banc to consider whether we should abandon that test in favor of the standards embodied in Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. For the reasons explained below, we adopt Rule 702.2

I. The Factual and Procedural Background

The plaintiffs in these thirteen cases have sued numerous cell phone manufacturers, service providers, and trade associations, alleging that long-term exposure to cell-phone radiation causes brain tumors. Judge. Frederick H. Weisberg held four weeks of evidentiary hearings on the admissibility of the expert testimony offered by the plaintiffs.3 He concluded that, based on the present record, “some, but not all, of Plaintiffs’ proffered expert testimony on general causation is admissible under the Frye/Dyas evidentiary standard,” but “most, if not all, of Plaintiffs’ experts would probably be excluded under the Rule 702/Daubert standard .... ”4 Judge Weisberg then certified the following question of law for interlocutory appeal: “whether the District of Columbia should adopt Federal Rule of Evidence 702 (or a revised Frye standard) for the admissibility of expert evidence.” See D.C. Code § 11-721 (d) (2012 Repl.). We granted appellants’ motion for interlocutory review.5

II. Legal Analysis

Our role at this stage of the proceedings is limited, but consequential. It is not our task to affirm or reverse Judge Weisberg’s ruling.6 For this reason, we will not attempt to duplicate his learned discussion of the underlying science or his extended summary of the testimony he heard. Instead, we must decide whether to change the legal standard that governs the admission of expert testimony.

A. The Dyas/Frye Test

In this jurisdiction, the admission of expert testimony has been governed by the legal principles set forth in Frye v. United States and Dyas v. United States, In the seminal case of Frye, the trial court excluded evidence that the defendant had [753]*753taken and passed an early form of a lie-detector test. 293 F. 1013. Upholding the ensuing murder conviction, the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia articulated a test for admitting expert testimony. That test was thereafter widely adopted in federal and state courts:

Just when a scientific principle or discovery crosses the line between the experimental and demonstrable stages is difficult to define. Somewhere in this twilight zone the evidential force of the principle must be recognized, and while courts will go a long way in admitting expert testimony deduced from a well-recognized scientific principle or discovery, the thing from which the deduction is máde must be sufficiently establishéd to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs.

Id. at 1014.

Later, in Dyas, we expanded upon Frye and adopted a three-part test for determining whether to admit expert testimony:

(1) the subject matter “must be so distinctively related to some science, profession, business or occupation as to be beyond the ken of the average layman (2) “the witness must have sufficient skill, knowledge, or experience in that field or calling as to make it appear that his opinion or inference mil probably aid the trier in his search for truth”-, and (3) expert testimony is inadmissible if “the state of the pertinent art or scientific knowledge does not permit a reasonable opinion to be asserted even by an expert.”

376 A.2d at 832 (quoting McCormick on Evidence, § 13 at 29-31 (E. Cleary, 2d ed. 1972)). “The third criterion [of Dyas] incorporates the ... Frye test, under which scientific testimony is admissible only if the theory or methodology on which it is based has gained general acceptance in the relevant scientific community.” (John) Jones v. United States, 990 A.2d 970, 977 (D.C. 2010).

“[BJecause expert or scientific testimony possesses an aura of special reliability and trustworthiness, the proffer of such testimony must be carefully scrutinized.” Ibn-Tamas v. United States, 407 A.2d 626, 632 (D.C. 1979) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). However, under Dyas/Frye, this inquiry “begins—and ends—-with a determination of whether there is general acceptance of a particular scientific methodology, not an acceptance, beyond that, of particular study results based on that methodology.” Id. at 638; see also President and Directors of Georgetown College v. Wheeler, 75 A.3d 280, 291 (D.C. 2013) (“The third Dyas requirement focuses not on the acceptance of a particular conclusion derived from the methodology, but rather on the acceptance of the methodology itself.” (ellipsis, .brackets, and internal quotation marks omitted)).

“General acceptance. means just that; the answer cannot vary from case to case.” (Nathaniel) Jones v. United States, 548 A.2d 35, 40 (D.C. 1988). “If the technique has gained such general acceptance, we will accept it as presumptively reliable and thus generally admissible into evidence.” Id. at 39. As Judge Weisberg explained, under the Dyas/Frye test “the question of whether an expert used a particular generally accepted methodology correctly is not at issue when determining the ... admissibility” of the expert’s testimony. See, e.g., United States v. Porter, 618 A.2d 629, 636 (D.C. 1992) (“Any failure by the scientists to adhere to the appropriate procedure is, of course, a proper subject of inquiry, but does not raise an issue which implicates Frye.”).

B. The Daubert Trilogy

In 1993 the Supreme Court held that the “general acceptance” test had been super[754]*754seded by the Federal Rules of Evidence, which were enacted half a century after Frye was decided. Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 587, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993).

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Bluebook (online)
147 A.3d 751, 2016 D.C. App. LEXIS 382, 2016 WL 6134870, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/motorola-inc-v-michael-patrick-murray-dc-2016.