Courtroom Success 2016-30: Morrison Mahoney Partner Joseph Desmond & Associate Philip Messier

Morrison Mahoney Partner Joseph Desmond and Associate Philip Messier secured summary judgment in our client’s favor in a nursing malpractice case in federal court. The court had earlier granted defendants’ motion to preclude testimony from the plaintiff’s sole expert on negligence and medical causation. At his deposition, this expert had admitted he did not prepare the disclosed report and did not agree with many of its conclusions. Joe and Phil moved to preclude the expert on the grounds that his methodology was unreliable under Daubert. The judge agreed that the expert did not meet Daubert’s reliability standard, though the Court precluded the expert primarily because the disclosed report failed to meet the requirement in Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B) that the expert prepare his own report. Following preclusion of the expert, the court granted a motion for summary judgment as the plaintiff could no longer present expert evidence to meet her burden of showing negligence or medical causation.