Rahoi v. Sirin

252 F.R.D. 464, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68635, 2008 WL 4186848
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 10, 2008
DocketNo. 06-cv-691-bbc
StatusPublished

This text of 252 F.R.D. 464 (Rahoi v. Sirin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rahoi v. Sirin, 252 F.R.D. 464, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68635, 2008 WL 4186848 (W.D. Wis. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BARBARA B. CRABB, District Judge.

In this ease brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiff Mark Rahoi contends that [467]*467defendants Dr. Kerim Sirin, Dr. Charles Huibregtse and Dr. Burton Cox, Jr. violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment when (1) all three doctors were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs when they failed to arrange for him to receive surgery for his rotator cuff tear and physical therapy for complications from his spinal cord injuries and (2) defendants Huibregtse and Cox were deliberately indifferent to his need for prescribed medication when they failed to insure that the prescriptions were timely renewed.1 There are three motions to address. Defendants have moved for summary judgment on plaintiffs claims and have also moved to strike plaintiffs expert testimony. Plaintiff has filed a motion for clarification regarding his motion to file a surreply on the summary judgment motion. I will address each of these motions separately.

I. PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR CLARIFICATION

Plaintiff has moved for clarification regarding this court’s July 17, 2008 order denying his motion to file a surreply brief on the defendant’s summary judgment motion. Plaintiff does not actually ask the court to clarify its ruling, but rather requests permission to submit a supplemental affidavit indicating the specific page numbers for citations to Dr. Huibregtse’s deposition testimony in plaintiffs response brief on summary judgment. I must deny this motion because this court’s rules for submitting evidence in response to a motion for summary judgment require that plaintiff rely on facts included in plaintiffs proposed findings of fact or a response to defendants’ proposed findings of fact. Even if I granted plaintiffs motion, I would not consider facts contained only in a brief or a supplemental affidavit. Therefore plaintiffs motion will be denied.

II. DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO STRIKE EXPERTS

Defendants have filed a motion to strike the experts plaintiff has disclosed. This court’s preliminary pretrial conference order stated the following:

Disclosure of Experts: Plaintiff: April 18, 2008 Defendants: May 16, 2008
Ml disclosures mandated by this paragraph must comply with the requirements of Rule 26(a)(2)(A), (B) and (C). There shall be no third round of rebuttal expert reports. Supplementation pursuant to Rule 26(e)(1) is limited to matters raised in an expert’s first report, must be in writing and must be served not later than five calendar days before the expert’s deposition, or before the general discovery cutoff if no one deposes the expert. Any employee of a party who will be offering expert opinions during any phase of this ease must comply with all of these disclosure requirements.
Treating physicians and similar treatment providers who will be testifying in that capacity and who will not be offering expert opinions beyond the scope of their treatment must be listed as experts according to the schedule set forth above, but they need not prepare a written report.
Failure to comply with these deadlines and procedures could result in the court striking the testimony of a party’s experts pursuant to Rule 37. The parties may modify these deadlines and procedures only by unanimous agreement or by court order.

On April 18, 2008, plaintiff filed his disclosure of experts. The disclosure stated in relevant part:

1. Treating physicians on behalf of plaintiff Mark Rahoi who include Steven I. Grindel and William Waring.... Attached are affidavits of Dr. Grindel and Dr. Waring that supplement their treating records.
[468]*4682. Peter M. Ihle.... Dr. Ihle is a retained expert.
3. Additional treating physicians may be named. Timely disclosure will be made to the defense.
In the event substantial employment restrictions amicable to the lack of care by defendants are assigned by Dr. Ihle giving rise to an impairment of earning capacity claim, an expert in that area will be named as well. Preliminarily, that individual is Mr. Ken Ogren ... or Mr. Jeb Kaiser.

In addition, on June 30, 2008, plaintiff filed an untimely amended disclosure of experts, including all the experts previously disclosed, as well as Dr. Troy Berg and Dr. Nathan Rudin.

Defendants move to strike Dr. Ihle, Ogren, Kaiser, Dr. Berg and Dr. Rudin from testifying altogether and bar Dr. Grindel and Dr. Waring from presenting expert testimony. Defendants argue that plaintiff has not met the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(a)(2)(B) that a party disclosing experts accompany such disclosure with a written report containing (1) a complete statement of all opinions the witness will express and the basis and reasons for them; (2) the data or other information considered by the witness in forming them; (3) any exhibits that will be used to summarize or support the opinions; (4) the witness’s qualifications, including a list of all publications authored in the previous 10 years; (5) a list of all other eases in which, during the previous four years, the witness testified as an expert at trial or by deposition; and (6) a statement of the compensation to be paid for the expert’s work in the case. Plaintiff has not provided reports for any of the experts listed in his disclosures.

A. Dr. Ihle

Plaintiff states he is not going to call Dr. Ihle; therefore I will grant the motion to strike regarding him.

B. Dr. Waring and Dr. Gihndel

Dr. Waring and Dr. Grindel are treating doctors. Defendants do not object to their testifying regarding the treatment they provided, but move to bar them from presenting expert testimony. Defendants argue that plaintiff has not complied with the pretrial conference order and Rule 26(a)(2)(B) for experts offering opinions beyond the scope of their treatment. Plaintiff does not argue he has complied with the pretrial conference order, but instead argues because plaintiff was to undergo rotator cuff surgery with Dr. Grindel on July 22, 2008, neither he nor Dr. Waring would be able to foresee the outcome of the surgery, and thus the Rule 26 requirements “[do] not fit this case.” He further argues that because defense counsel will have the opportunity to see the doctors’ deposition testimony, no surprise will occur. I conclude that any testimony Dr. Waring and Dr. Grindel might offer outside the scope of their treatment of plaintiff must be barred. First, it seems likely that Dr. Waring and Dr. Grindel would be asked to testify as experts about the standard of care for a torn rotator cuff and how plaintiffs treatment in prison related to that care. Conclusory testimony of this nature was presented early in the litigation, when the summary judgment process was stayed on November 8, 2007, in response to affidavits received from these doctors.2 Yet even after the summary judgment process was delayed approximately nine months, giving plaintiff an opportunity to provide expert reports in compliance with Rule 26(a)(2)(B), he has failed to provide them.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
252 F.R.D. 464, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68635, 2008 WL 4186848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rahoi-v-sirin-wiwd-2008.