Webb v. Carnival Corp.

321 F.R.D. 420, 2017 WL 2880087
District Court, S.D. Florida·Decided July 6, 2017·No. Case No. 15-24230-Civ·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

ORDER ON DEFENDANT’S DAUBERT MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFF’S EXPERT WITNESS RANDALL JA-QUES

EDWIN G. TORRES, United States Magistrate Judge

This matter is before the Court on Carnival Corporation’s (“Defendant”) Daubert Motion to Strike (“Motion”) Nicole Webb’s (“Plaintiff’) expert witness Randall Jaques (“Mr. Jaques”). [D.E. 63]. On November 10, 2016, Plaintiff timely filed her response [D.E. 74] and Defendant replied on November 21, 2016. [D.E. 75]. Therefore, this Motion is now ripe for disposition. Having reviewed the Motion, response, reply, and relevant authority, and for the reasons discussed below, Defendant’s Motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

J. BACKGROUND

This case involves the unfortunate and tragic death of Phillip “Aaron” Webb (the [423] “Decedent”) while cruising aboard the Carnival Dream,. Prior to his passing, the Decedent (30 years of age) resided in Missouri with his ex-wife, Plaintiff, and their three children, Brayden Alijah (12 years old), Addison (7 years old), and Destiny (3 years old). In January 2015, the Decedent and Plaintiff went on a cruise with two friends to Cozumel, Mexico. During the first day at sea, in a span of twelve hours, twenty-two alcoholic beverages were purportedly served to Plaintiff and the Decedent. Fifteen of the twenty-two alcoholic beverages were Long Island Iced Teas, which includes gin, tequila, vodka, rum and triple sec, totaling approximately 2.5 ounces of alcohol per drink. At around 12:00 am, the Decedent, Plaintiff and their two friends were in the casino bar watching a live musical performer. At some point, the Decedent fell off of his barstool due to his intoxication. After the fall, Plaintiff and two friends purportedly told the bartender to stop serving the Decedent. At this moment, the Decedent allegedly became aggressive and requested the bartender to serve another drink, to which the bartender served the Decedent another Long Island Iced Tea.

Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff and the two friends went to an adjacent club to dance, leaving the Decedent at the casino bar because he wanted to smoke a cigarette. At approximately 12:30 am, the Decedent went back to his cabin alone. At approximately 1:05 am, the Decedent fell over his cabin balcony railing, striking his head on the deck below. At 1:35 am, Carnival Security found the Decedent lying lifeless on the deck. The Decedent’s blood alcohol content was .369 g/dl, over four times the legal limit. As a result, Plaintiff contends that Defendant negligently overserved the Decedent alcohol and brings this negligence claim under the Death on the High Seas Act.

II. APPLICABLE PRINCIPLES AND LAW

The decision to admit or exclude expert testimony is within the trial court’s discretion and the court enjoys “considerable leeway” when determining the admissibility of this testimony. See Cook v. Sheriff of Monroe County, Fla., 402 F.3d 1092, 1103 (11th Cir. 2005). As explained in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), the admissibility of expert testimony is governed by Fed. R. Evid. 702.1 The party offering the expert testimony carries the burden of laying the proper foundation for its admission, and admissibility must be shown by a preponderance of the evidence. See Allison v. McGhan Med. Corp., 184 F.3d 1300, 1306 (11th Cir. 1999); see also United States v. Frazier, 387 F.3d 1244, 1260 (11th Cir. 2004) (“The burden of establishing qualification, reliability, and helpfulness rests on the proponent of the expert opinion, whether the proponent is the plaintiff or the defendant in a civil suit, or the government or the accused in a criminal case.”).

“Under Rule 702 and Daubert, district courts must act as ‘gate keepers’ which admit ejq)ert testimony only if it is both reliable and relevant.” Rink v. Cheminova, Inc., 400 F.3d 1286, 1291 (11th Cir. 2005) (citing Daubert, 509 U.S. at 589, 113 S.Ct. 2786). The purpose of this role is “to ensure that speculative, unreliable expert testimony does not reach the jury.” McCorvey v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 298 F.3d 1253, 1256 (11th Cir. 2002). Also, in its role as “gatekeeper,” its duty is not “to make ultimate conclusions as to the persuasiveness of the proffered evidence.” Quiet Tech. DC-8, Inc. v. Hurel-Dubois UK Ltd., 326 F.3d 1333, 1341 (11th Cir. 2003)

To facilitate this process, district courts engage in a three part inquiry to determine the admissibility of expert testimony:

(1) the expert is qualified to testify competently regarding the matters he intends to [424] address; (2) the methodology by which the expert reaches his conclusions is sufficiently reliable as determined by the sort of inquiry mandated in Daubert; and (3) the testimony assists the trier of fact, through the application of scientific, technical, or specialized expertise, to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.

City of Tuscaloosa, 158 F.3d 548, 562 (11th Cir. 1998) (citations omitted). The Eleventh Circuit refers to the aforementioned requirements as the “qualification,” “reliability,” and “helpfulness” prongs and while they “remain distinct concepts”; “the courts must take care not to conflate them.” Frazier, 387 F.3d at 1260 (citing Quiet Tech., 326 F.3d at 1341).

Furthermore, in determining the reliability of a scientific expert opinion, the Eleventh Circuit considers the following factors to the extent possible:

(1) whether the expert’s theory can be and has been tested; (2) whether the theory has been subjected to peer review and publication; (3) the known or potential rate of error of the particular scientific technique; and (4) whether the technique is generally accepted in the scientific community. Notably, however, these factors do not exhaust the universe of considerations that may bear on the reliability of a given expert opinion, and a federal court should consider any additional factors that may advance its Rule 702 analysis.

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Webb v. Carnival Corp., 321 F.R.D. 420, 2017 WL 2880087 (S.D. Fla. 2017).

321 F.R.D. 420 (Webb v. Carnival Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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