Roemen v. United States of America

District Court, D. South Dakota·Decided October 16, 2023·No. 4:19-cv-04006·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA SOUTHERN DIVISION

MICAH ROEMEN; 4:19-CV-04006-LLP TOM TEN EYCK, Guardian of Morgan Ten Eyck; and MICHELLE TEN EYCK, Guardian of Morgan Ten Eyck, ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION TO COMPEL PRODUCTION Plaintiffs, OF DOCUMENTS

vs. DOCKET NO. 170

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ROBERT NEUENFELDT, individually And UNKNOWN SUPERVISORY PERSONNEL OF THE UNITED STATES, individually,

Defendants.

INTRODUCTION This matter is before the court on the Second Amended Complaint of plaintiffs Micah Roemen, and Tom and Michelle Ten Eyck, as guardians of Morgan Ten Eyck. Docket No. 76. Plaintiffs seek damages for injuries suffered by passengers of a vehicle involved in a police chase and subsequent crash. See generally id. Plaintiffs’ complaint espoused multiple common law and federal statutory theories, some of which the district judge dismissed in motions practice. Id.; Docket Nos. 31 at pp. 23–24, 142 at p. 36; Ten Eyck v. United States, 463 F. Supp. 3d 969, 990 (D.S.D. 2020). Surviving are a negligence claim against the United States, pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2671–2680, as well as Bivens1 actions against Robert Neuenfeldt and other unknown defendants. Docket Nos. 31 at pp. 23–24, 76 at pp. 6–15, 142 at p. 36; Ten Eyck, 463 F. Supp. 3d at 990. This court has original jurisdiction over the matter under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1346(b).

This opinion resolves plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel Production of Documents [Docket No. 170] which the district judge referred to this magistrate judge.2 Docket No. 177. FACTS At approximately 1:30 a.m. on June 18, 2017, Morgan Ten Eyck and Micah Roemen were passengers in a vehicle driven by Tahlen Bourassa. Docket No. 155 at p. 4. Mr. Bourassa’s pickup approached the site of an unauthorized house party in rural Moody County, where multiple officers were

on scene to investigate, “process” the partygoers, and in one instance, assist a partygoer having a seizure. Id. at pp. 2–5. South Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper Isaac Kurtz pulled Mr. Bourassa over because he believed Mr. Bourassa’s presence was related to the house party. Docket No. 112, ¶ 58. Chief Neuenfeldt then allegedly ordered Mr. Bourassa to exit his vehicle.

1 Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971).

2 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(1) requires a motion to compel to “include a certification that the movant has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with the person or party failing to make disclosure or discovery in an effort to obtain it without court action.” District of South Dakota Local Rule 37.1 requires “[a] party filing a motion concerning a discovery dispute [to] file a separate certification describing the good faith efforts of the parties to resolve the dispute.” Plaintiffs have satisfied these requirements. Docket Nos. 170, 172. Docket No. 155 at p. 5. Chief Neuenfeldt also “told Bourassa he would arrest him if Bourassa did not unlock his doors.” Docket No. 112, ¶ 70. Instead of complying, Mr. Bourassa fled the scene. Docket No. 155 at p. 5. A 24-minute, multi-vehicle police chase ensued, followed by the single-

vehicle collision of Mr. Bourassa’s truck at the terminus of a dead-end street. Docket No. 155 at pp. 5–9. The impact of the collision caused Mr. Bourassa, Mr. Roemen, and Ms. Ten Eyck to be ejected from the truck. Id. at p. 8. The government acknowledges that injuries arose to “all occupants,” but no party agrees on the extent of the injuries. Docket Nos. 77, ¶¶ 29–34, 76, ¶¶ 29–34, 78, ¶¶ 2, 6. The point of contention underlying the present motion is the life expectancy of Morgan Ten Eyck. Docket No. 170 at p. 1, Docket No. 172-1 at

pp. 2–3. Plaintiffs allege that Ms. Ten Eyck is “completely incapacitated.” Docket No. 76, ¶ 33. Accordingly, their prayer for relief contemplates both a lifetime of care and compensation for her permanent loss. Id., ¶ 97. Ms. Ten Eyck’s life expectancy is a necessary input for calculating the associated “life care valuation” and “earnings valuation.” Cf. Docket No. 163-6 at pp. 1–7. This is so, because as the duration of incapacity increases, so does the cost of care and the loss of potential earnings. Cf. id. To estimate this life expectancy, both the government and the plaintiffs rely on experts. See Docket No. 163 at

p. 2; Docket No. 172-1 at pp. 2–3. Plaintiffs’ expert, the economist Donald Frankenfeld, assumed Ms. Ten Eyck’s life expectancy to be age 81.1. Docket No. 163-6 at pp. 1, 8. The government’s expert, Dr. Robert Shavelle,3 calculated Ms. Ten Eyck’s life expectancy as a number of years: 18, which, when added to his age assumption of 25.6, would amount to a life expectancy of age 43.6. Docket No. 172-2 at p. 2. Thus, a gap of 37.5 years exists between Mr. Frankenfeld’s

economic assumption and Dr. Shavelle’s expert opinion. In response to this gap, plaintiffs enlisted another expert, Dr. Michael Freeman, who will provide a report and testimony in rebuttal of Dr. Shavelle’s findings.4 Docket No. 168 at p. 5. To do so, Dr. Freeman seeks the raw data underlying certain articles cited by Dr. Shavelle. Docket No. 173 at pp. 1–2. The goal is to re-assess the similarity between Ms. Ten Eyck and the patients from those studies. Docket No. 171 at pp. 1–2. This is necessary, plaintiffs argue, because certain factors were ignored by the studies yet acknowledged as

“indicative and important” at Dr. Shavelle’s deposition. Id. At his deposition, plaintiffs asked Dr. Shavelle whether he used the raw data underlying these articles “in [his] analysis that then is cited in [his] report.” Docket No. 193 at p. 25 (Shavelle Dep. 24:8–12). Dr. Shavelle denied this. Id. (Shavelle Dep. 24:13). Instead, Dr. Shavelle testified that he “relied on the four things listed in paragraph 7 of [his] report.” Id. (Shavelle Dep. 24:13– 17). These four things are (1) the materials provided to him concerning the

3 Dr. Robert Shavelle has “a Ph.D. in applied statistics with substantive field epidemiology.” Docket No. 193 at p. 6 (Shavelle Dep. 5:14–19).

4 Pending before the district judge is the government’s Motion to Strike Plaintiffs’ Rebuttal Experts Dr. Michael Freeman and Dr. Alan Weintraub on the grounds plaintiffs did not timely disclose these experts. Docket No. 183. present litigation, (2) “a large body of medical literature from around the world,” (3) “standard scientific methods,” and (4) his “education, training, experience, and expertise.” Docket No. 172-2 at p. 2, ¶ 7. Dr. Shavelle repeated this assertion throughout his deposition. Id. at p. 64 (Shavelle Dep.

63:13–22) (“I did not rely on any raw data, data set, database, or electronic repository of patient information.”); id. at p. 23 (Shavelle Dep. 22:6–8) (“Nor did I rely on any of that data in forming my opinions in this case.”). Further, Dr. Shavelle stated that none of the raw data was in his possession. Id. (Shavelle Dep. 22:5–6). Plaintiffs questioned whether the underlying “data sets would verify whatever was written in the stud[ies]” that Dr. Shavelle relied on. Id. at p. 36 (Shavelle Dep. 35:18–19); id. at p. 37 (Shavelle Dep. 36:2–4) (“And the data sets

would verify it, correct? Don’t have to take your word for it. It would be verified by the data sets, correct?”). Dr.

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