Stacey v. Bangor Punta Corp.

107 F.R.D. 779, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 87, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14569
District Court, D. Maine·Decided October 24, 1985·No. Civ. No. 83-0276-P·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO ADD TWO EXPERT WITNESSES

GENE CARTER, District Judge.

I. Background

This matter is presently before the Court on request for expedited hearing on Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Add Two Expert Witnesses, filed on October 18, 1985 at 3:02 p.m. By the motion Plaintiff seeks to add additional expert witnesses, Messrs. L.S. Martin and Stanton O. Berg, to testify on the liability issues at trial. The reasons put forth for this late identification of expert witnesses is

that Plaintiff’s counsel has just recently received three expert reports (Fossett, Baker and Sefried) from the Defendant, wherein these experts set forth an entirely new opinion/defense for the very first time. The above two listed expert witnesses are absolutely essential to the Plaintiff in order to deal with this new theory presented by the Defendant____

Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Add Two Expert Witnesses at 1. Defendants filed an objection to the Plaintiff’s motion on October 21, 1985, and consented to the expedited hearing thereon requested by Plaintiff’s counsel. On October 21, 1985 at 1:30 p.m. the Court held a hearing on the record in chambers, with counsel for all of the parties present.

Plaintiff’s counsel concedes at the outset that the Defendants filed over a year ago a Rule 26(b)(4) disclosure of the anticipated expert testimony of Defendants’ expert witnesses Harry Sefried and Richard Baker. The Court has reviewed the text of that disclosure. Plaintiff asserts, however, that when the Defendants served copies of the reports of the expert witnesses Sefried and Baker upon Plaintiff’s counsel, on October 8, 1985, pursuant to a prior order of the Court, Plaintiff discovered for the first time that Defendants’ experts would concede that Defendants’ revolver did have a condition known as the “hung up position” of the firing mechanism (alleged by Plaintiff to be one of the two design defects in the revolver at issue herein), but would testify and that other double action revolvers made by other manufacturers have the same characteristic. This expert testimony is what is alluded to in the pending motion by Plaintiff as the “new theory presented by the Defendant.” Plaintiff asserts that it needs to be able to produce the testimony of Messrs. Martin and Berg in order to counter the thrust of this testimony and [781]*781effectively meet the Defendants’ “new theory.”

At the conference Defendants’ counsel stated that several days before the filing of the pending motion he received a telephone call from Plaintiff’s counsel in which he was asked to agree to the substitution at trial of Messrs. Martin and Berg in place of Plaintiff’s identified expert witness, William Nittler. Defendants’ counsel stated that he refused that request. At the conference, Plaintiff’s counsel admitted that such a telephone conversation had occurred. Plaintiff’s counsel asserted, however, that the testimony of Messrs. Martin and Berg was essential to Plaintiff’s case in order to counter Defendants’ “new theory” of defense and to now establish that the entire revolver industry was manufacturing weapons that were inadequate in light of the present state of the art in terms of safety precautions against inadvertent discharge. On inquiry by the Court he indicated that Martin and Berg would produce much testimony repetitive of and cumulative to that already available from Nittler, with perhaps some greater emphasis, as well as testimony on the state of the art and the significance of the fact that pistols of other manufacturers also are subject to the “hung up” position in their firing mechanisms.

Defendants assert, however, that the pri- or discovery in this case indicated as long ago as January 11, 1985 that the firing mechanism of other manufacturers than the Defendants herein would “hang up.” Further, Defendants suggest that the deposition of Mr. Baker herein, which was taken by Plaintiff’s counsel on February 11, 1985, contains testimony in which Baker admitted to having tested other manufacturers’ revolvers to determine whether they would “hang up” and that he had found that two Ruger models and two High Standard models would do so. Thus, Defendants assert that Plaintiff’s claim of surprise at the recent development disclosed by the reports delivered on October 8, 1985 is without foundation.

A brief resume of the discovery history in respect to expert testimony in this case is instructive in setting the predicate for the resolution of the present controversy. This matter was commenced by the filing of a complaint in this Court on August 24, 1983. The matter proceeded until the scheduling conference before the Magistrate on December 16, 1983. The report of the conference, filed on December 19, 1983, required that the Plaintiff identify expert witnesses by March 15, 1984 and that the Defendants do likewise by July 2, 1984. Report of Preliminary Pretrial and Scheduling Conference at 2.

Thereafter, Plaintiff sought an extension of the period for identification of its expert witnesses which was ultimately granted by the Magistrate; the period for disclosure of Plaintiff’s expert witnesses being enlarged to March 7, 1984. Order of March 19, 1984. Thereafter, the Magistrate entered, on June 3, 1985, an Order and Recommended Decision granting the Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File a Supplemental Designation of Expert Witnesses and Enlarging the Discovery Deadline for thirty days “for the sole purpose of permitting the Defendants to take the deposition of this expert and to name any experts in response.” Order and Recommended Decision of June 3, 1985 at 1.

Thereafter, on June 21, 1985, the Clerk notified counsel that this matter was scheduled for trial on the jury trial list to commence on September 30, 1985. Defendants’ counsel requested a continuance of the trial, which was granted by the Court’s Procedural Order filed on July 31, 1985, and which order specifically stated that “this matter be continued for trial to the Court’s civil trial list to commence on November 12, 1985, this case to be the first case on that list.” Procedural Order at 1. At that conference all counsel joined in a request for a specific assignment of the case for trial. There was no objection made at the conference to the March 12, 1985 trial date when it was selected by the Court after conferring with counsel. No objection thereto has been registered sub[782]*782sequent to the Order of July 31, 1985 establishing that date.

In the meantime, Defendants had filed on June 13, 1985 an objection to the Magistrate’s Recommended Decision referred to hereinabove. The Court next entered its Order on Defendants’ Motion to Compel Production of Nittler Documents on September 17, 1985. The Nittler documents were documents generated by Plaintiff’s expert witness, William Nittler, which the Plaintiff had refused to produce in voluntary discovery. The Court ordered their production in its order of September 17, 1985.

The matter was next before the Court for a conference of the Court and counsel on September 18, 1985 for purposes of preparing the above-entitled matter for Summary Jury Trial. Resolved in the course of the conference was the Defendants’ Motion for Leave to Add an Expert Witness, filed on September 10, 1985. This motion related ' to the witness Dr.

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

Stacey v. Bangor Punta Corp., 107 F.R.D. 779, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 87, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14569 (D. Me. 1985).

107 F.R.D. 779 (Stacey v. Bangor Punta Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Wilson v. John Crane, Inc.
867 A.2d 1077 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2005)