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Court Addresses Admissibility of Expert Testimony Under the Federal Employer's Liability Act

In the case of Lindsay v. Delaware and Hudson Railway Co., Inc., No. 2019-CV-3949 (C.P. Lacka. Co. March 3, 2025 Nealon, J.), the court addressed a pre-trial Motion In Limine filed by the Defendants seeking to preclude the opinions of a Plaintiff’s medical expert in a personal injury claim arising out of the Federal Employer’s Liability Act. The Defendants contended that the Plaintiff’s medical expert’s causation opinions were inadmissible since they were based upon methodologies that were not generally accepted in the relevant scientific community.

After reviewing the expert’s report and noting that the expert had a section of his report entitled “Methodology” in which the doctor described the methodologies he utilized in formulating his general causation and specific causation opinions, the court denied the Defendant’s Motion In Limine.

The court note that the materials submitted for the court’s review confirm that the Plaintiff’s medical expert based his causation opinions upon his knowledge, experience, and training in internal medicine, oncology, and hematology, the review of the Plaintiff’s medical records and deposition testimony, the Defendant’s discovery responses, other expert reports, along with the application of the generally accepted methodologies for general causation and specific causation.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.

Source of image: Photo by Todd Trapani on www.pexels.com.

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Court Addresses Admissibility of Expert Opinions

In the case of Twigg v. Varsity Brands Holding Co., No. 4:23-CV-00067 (M.D. Pa. March 7, 2025 Brann, C.J.), the court provided the latest pronouncement on the Rules of Admissibility for an expert witness under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.

This products liability case arose out of an accident during which a baseball coach was struck by a batted ball that went through an L-screen net while he was pitching batting practice.

In his decision in this case Chief Judge Matthew W. Brann granted in part and denied in part Rule 702 motions regarding experts in the case. In so ruling, the court noted the following principles of law.

An expert’s lack of technical background does not render an expert unqualified where that expert has sufficient practical experience.

The court also ruled that an expert need not have familiarity with a product in order to evaluate the adequacy of a manufacturer’s testing protocols.

The court also noted that an expert may rely solely upon material provided to the expert by counsel. However, that expert is not permitted to rely upon material that has not been disclosed to the opposing party.

The court also reaffirmed the rule that an expert may not testify about matters outside the scope of their opinions.

The court also noted that experts may assume the truth of the contested facts asserted by the parties who hired them. The weight of such opinions depends on how the jury ultimately views the underlying facts.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.  The court's companion Order can be viewed HERE.


I send thanks to Attorney James M. Beck of the Reed Smith office in Philadelphia for bringing this case to my attention.

Federal Court Remands Case To State Court After Finding Diversity Jurisdiction Defeated by Joinder of Store Manager as a Defendant

In the case of Jones v. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, No. 2:24-CV-05521-KNS (E.D. Pa. Feb. 4, 2025 Scott, J.), the court granted a Plaintiff’s Motion to Remand this case from federal court back to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

According to the Opinion, this case arose out a trip and fall case that occurred at a Wal-Mart store.

The Plaintiff filed the lawsuit in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The Plaintiff sued Wal-Mart and the store manager.

Wal-Mart removed the case to federal court asserting that the store manager Defendant was fraudulently joined and that, therefore, the requirements for a federal diversity jurisdiction were satisfied.

The federal court disagreed and held that remand was required where complete diversity jurisdiction did not exist in light of the fact that the Plaintiff had asserted a valid negligence claims against an individual store manger who, like the Plaintiff, was a Pennsylvania citizen.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.  The Court's companion Order can be viewed at this LINK.


Source: The Legal Intelligencer Federal Case Alert, www.Law.com (March 7, 2025).

Court Finds That Arbitration Agreement on a Website Was Invalid as it Was Not Conspicuously Noted

In the case of W.W. v. Allegheny Health Network, No. 2:23-CV-01163-CCW (W.D. Pa. Feb. 27, 2025 Wiegand, J.), the court denied a Defendant’s Motion to Compel Arbitration of the Plaintiff’s claims after finding that the Arbitration Agreement, which was contained in a document that could be accessed through a link to the Defendant’s website, was not sufficiently conspicuous enough to put the Plaintiff on notice that the Plaintiff was agreeing to Arbitration.

According to the Opinion, in this matter, the Plaintiff alleged that Alleghany Health Network unlawfully collected confidential health information from users to visited the Defendant’s website and then disclosed the visitor’s information to third parties in violation of federal and state law.

In response to the Complaint filed, the Defendant moved to compel Arbitration pursuant to the Arbitration Agreement appearing in the network’s Terms of Service, a link to which appeared on the Defendant’s website.

The court determined that the Arbitration Agreement was not valid because the Plaintiff did not have actual or constructive notice of the agreement.

The Defendant had contended that the continued use of the website by visitors constituted acceptance of the terms of service contained in the link on the website.

According to the Opinion, the Plaintiff denied ever seeing the terms at issue or clicking the link to the terms of the Arbitration Agreement. As such, the Plaintiff asserted that there was no valid contract because he was never aware of the Arbitration Agreement since he never read, reviewed, or opened the Terms of Service.

In ruling in favor of the Plaintiff, the court noted that the Defendant’s Terms of Service do not require or allow users to ‘signed’ the Terms of Service, thereby calling into question whether or to the Plaintiff ever saw the Terms of Service at issue. The court additionally found that the link itself to the Terms of Service was not sufficiently conspicuous.

The court also noted that the Defendant failed to have an “explicit textual notice” informing visitors to the site that the continued use of the website constituted acceptance of the terms. Here, visitors to the website had to scroll past numerous sections of content to even reach a footer that contained the link to the terms of service. Once a visitor got to that area of the website, the link at issue was one of over forty other links in the footer. As such, the court found that the link at issue and/or the Terms of Service themselves, were not reasonably conspicuous.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.

Source: Article – “Arbitration Agreement Linked On Healthcare Website Isn’t Binding, Fed. Judge Rules,” By Riley Brennan of the Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Feb. 28, 2025).

Source of image:  Photo by Christin Hume on www.unsplash.com.

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 I thank Harris Bock for inviting me to present at his famous annual CLE this year.

I will be presenting an update on notable court decisions and trends in Pennsylvania personal injury litigation matters over the past year or so as highlighted on my Tort Talk Blog (www.TortTalk.com).

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