Opinion ID: 2804968
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: Mr. Mathis challenges only whether Dr. Hayes’s testimony exceeded the scope of his qualifications as a biomechanical engineer. Relying on Smelser v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 105 F.3d 299 (6th Cir. 1997), he argues the district court improperly allowed Dr. Hayes to testify that the forces involved in the collision were insufficient to cause Mr. Mathis’s injuries. Biomechanical engineers, he contends, are qualified to testify only to “what injury causation forces are in general and . . . how a hypothetical -18- person’s body will respond to them,” not how a specific person will respond to an accident. Aplt. Br. at 43 (quoting Smelser, 105 F.3d at 305) (emphasis omitted). The district court received expert testimony through pre-filed witness statements, which were admitted into evidence before trial. At trial, the experts took the witness stand for cross-examination and redirect examination. Defendants argue Mr. Mathis forfeited any objection to the scope of Dr. Hayes’s testimony because, as the district court explained in its denial of Mr. Mathis’s motion for a new trial, Mr. Mathis never filed an objection to Dr. Hayes’s witness statement nor did he object to any questions seeking to elicit such testimony during trial. We agree. Mr. Mathis did not file a Daubert motion under Federal Rule of Evidence 104(a) to exclude Dr. Hayes’s witness statement. Although Mr. Mathis points to a belated objection he made to Dr. Hayes’s pre-filed witness statement, the district court correctly concluded Mr. Mathis could not object to this evidence after it had already been admitted. After denying Mr. Mathis’s belated objection, the court recognized Dr. Hayes as an expert in biomechanical engineering. The court instructed Mr. Mathis’s counsel to object if he “believe[d] that the testimony either as designated or as elicited exceed[ed] the scope of [Dr. Hayes’s] qualifications given his training and education as an anatomist and a biomechanical engineer.” Trial Tr., Vol. VI at 1338. Mr. Mathis did not make any specific objections at trial to such testimony. Further, Mr. Mathis does not argue the court plainly erred in admitting Dr. Hayes’s testimony. Somerlott v. Cherokee Nation Distribs., Inc., 686 F.3d 1144, 1151 (10th Cir. 2012) (“The burden of establishing plain -19- error lies with the appellant.”). “[T]he failure to argue for plain error and its application on appeal . . . surely marks the end of the road for an argument for reversal not first presented to the district court.” Richison, 634 F.3d at 1131. Accordingly, we deem Mr. Mathis’s challenge to Dr. Hayes’s testimony forfeited.