Opinion ID: 2184105
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application of the Abuse of Discretion Standard by the Court of Appeals

Text: The Court of Appeals purported to apply the abuse of discretion standard when it reviewed the trial court's Daubert ruling allowing Taylor's testimony at trial. We disagree that it did so. It did not find that the lack of express Daubert findings was arbitrary, unfair, or unreasonable, or an application of the wrong legal standard. In fact, the Court of Appeals never made any finding that the trial court's decision was arbitrary, unreasonable, or unfair, or that it applied the wrong legal standard. Instead the Court of Appeals simply stated that Taylor's testimony was neither reliable nor relevant, and that as a result, the trial court's admission of the testimony, was an abuse of discretion. But by finding that Taylor's testimony was unreliable, in addition to being irrelevant, the Court of Appeals was reviewing the trial court's findings of fact. And because reliability is a preliminary question of fact reserved to the trial judge, [15] clear error, not abuse of discretion, was the appropriate standard of review. The Court of Appeals prematurely reached the abuse of discretion standard.