Opinion ID: 1209937
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court's Determination to Exclude the Expert Testimony

Text: Mr. Nacchio was sufficiently on notice that he was required to present evidence in support of his expert's methodology or request an evidentiary hearing in advance of presenting the expert's testimony. It is well established that, as the proponent of Professor Fischel's expert testimony, Mr. Nacchio bore the burden of establishing its admissibility pursuant to FRE 702. See Ralston, 275 F.3d at 970 n. 4. This evidentiary burden put Mr. Nacchio on effective notice that, if Professor Fischel's testimony was going to be admitted, it would only be because Mr. Nacchio took appropriate action to get the job done. Mr. Nacchio argues, however, that there is no requirement that admissibility be shown at any specific time before presenting the witness and that he did not have notice of any obligation to proffer additional evidence or request a hearing. In particular, Mr. Nacchio contends that the presumptive time for establishing the reliability of the expert's testimony is on the witness stand and that he had every right to assume that the court would conduct voir dire or permit the questioning of Professor Fischel before ruling on admissibility. [10] Though Mr. Nacchio's expectation that Professor Fischel's admissibility would be established after he took the stand may have been reasonable, see, e.g., Goebel v. Denver & Rio Grande W. R.R., 215 F.3d 1083, 1087 (10th Cir.2000), Mr. Nacchio had no entitlement to a particular method of gatekeeping by the district court. Indeed, Mr. Nacchio's purported entitlement is squarely at odds with the directive in Kumho Tire that [t]he trial judge must have considerable leeway in deciding in a particular case how to go about determining whether particular expert testimony is reliable. 526 U.S. at 152, 119 S.Ct. 1167. The district court's failure to proceed as Mr. Nacchio anticipated does not by itself constitute an abuse of discretion. [11] See id. (The trial court must have the same kind of latitude in deciding how to test an expert's reliability, and to decide whether or when special briefing or other proceedings are needed to investigate reliability, as it enjoys when it decides whether or not that expert's relevant testimony is reliable.). Mr. Nacchio was on notice that the admissibility of Professor Fischel's testimony under FRE 702 was at issue well before the district court issued its ruling. [12] As early as the government's motion regarding the first Rule 16 disclosure, the government argued that FRE 702 was implicated. Aplee. Supp.App. 39. Furthermore, the March 22nd in  court oral exchange that raised the possibility of Daubert issues arisingin which Mr. Nacchio's counsel noted that forewarned is forearmedwas, at the very least, de facto warning of the imminent need for Mr. Nacchio to meet his burden. Cf. Macsenti v. Becker, 237 F.3d 1223, 1231-32 (10th Cir.2001) (noting that even when a party does not timely raise a Daubert objection, the trial judge is assigned the task of insuring that an expert's testimony rests on a reliable foundation and is relevant, but Daubert does not mandate an inquiry questioning and challenging the scientific proffer absent a timely request by an objecting party). Even if nothing previously had alerted Mr. Nacchio to the burgeoning Daubert issue, the government's motion to exclude Professor Fischel's expert testimony invoked Daubert and FRE 702 numerous times. The motion was based on deficiencies in the Rule 16 disclosure and on Mr. Nacchio's failure to carry his burden to demonstrate that Professor Fischel's testimony was admissible. The government's motion explicitly set forth authority and analysis regarding FRE 702's mandate that the expert testimony be the product of reliable principles and methods, and it offered detailed reasons why those specific opinions did not meet this methodology requirement. Aplt.App. 374-78, 385, 388, 390, 396, 407-08, 415. Furthermore, there can be no question, given the explicit language and tenor of Mr. Nacchio's response to this motion, that he understood that Daubert issues had arisen. Therefore, he also should have understood that, if the time had not earlier been ripe to bear the admissibility burden, that time had arrived. [13] Specifically, when Mr. Nacchio responded, in substance, he addressed Daubert issues in discussing FRE 702 and Professor Fischel's qualifications. Although the precise word Daubert was not invoked, a section heading in his response was Professor's Opinions Are Proper Under Rule 702. In that section, Mr. Nacchio discussed the specialized knowledge that Professor Fischel purportedly would bring to the jury and the analytic approach toward the financial data that he had undertaken to formulate opinions, i.e., his methodology. Aplt.App. 466. Thus, as of April 4, when he filed his response, Mr. Nacchio was not only on notice that Daubert was in play, he had affirmatively responded to the Daubert issues. Mr. Nacchio is attempting to recast an unremarkable district court evidentiary ruling as an invidious act of judicial hubris. But it will not work. At bottom, Mr. Nacchio's argument is no more than a run-of-the-mill lament of unfair surprise. We have rejected similar claims when, as here, the record belies them. For example, in Ralston, we concluded that the record did not support plaintiff's claim that she was unfairly surprised by the district court's decision at a summary judgment hearing to exclude her expert's testimony under FRE 702. 275 F.3d at 970 n. 4. The district court found that the expert was unqualified to render an opinion in support of plaintiff's liability theory. Id. at 968. We noted that in the defendant's written response to plaintiff's summary judgment filing an entire section is devoted to the argument that [plaintiff's expert] was not qualified to render an expert opinion. Id. at 970 n. 4. And we commented further: As the purpose of the hearing was to discuss the issues raised in the parties' supplemental summary judgment papers, it is disingenuous for Plaintiff to now claim that she was unaware that [her expert's] qualifications would be at issue at the hearing. Id. (emphasis added). Therefore, we rejected plaintiff's claim of unfair surprise. The reasoning of Ralston applies with even greater force on these facts. As in Ralston, before the district court acted to exclude it, the opponent of the expert testimonythe governmentspecifically challenged the admissibility of the expert testimony in its briefing and detailed the legal bases for its exclusion (e.g., methodology deficiencies under Daubert ). In its motion to exclude Professor Fischel's testimony, the government referred to Daubert and FRE 702 numerous times in pointing out alleged deficiencies in Professor Fischel's testimony. By way of notice, however, Mr. Nacchio got more than the Ralston plaintiff. Among other things, he received the de facto warning of possible Daubert issues associated with Professor Fischel's testimony arising from the March 22nd oral exchange with the government and the district court. Accordingly, under Ralston 's logic, we find unpersuasive (if not disingenuous) Mr. Nacchio's argument that he did not have notice, before the district court ruled against him, that the admissibility of Professor Fischel's testimony under Daubert was at issue. [14] Cf. Starter Corp. v. Converse, Inc., 170 F.3d 286, 299 (2d Cir.1999) (finding no abuse of discretion when district court granted injunctive relief to defendant sua sponte without a formal hearing when plaintiff had both notice of the court's intention and the opportunity to address the issue through its briefs). On the other hand, our decision in Procter & Gamble Co. v. Haugen illustrates well the rare set of circumstancesnot found herein which a proponent of expert testimony had so little notice of the district court's impending exclusion of its expert testimony that a claim of unfair surprise would have been justified. 427 F.3d 727, 736-37, 742 (10th Cir.2005). In that case, the district court dismissed with prejudice the plaintiffs' Lanham Act claims following a hearing on a motion for discovery sanctions against the plaintiffs. Id. at 736-37. The dismissal was partly based on the court's finding that the plaintiffs' expert testimony on damages was inadmissible. Id. at 737. The admissibility ruling was only a paragraph, and the entire rationale was that the expert's damages testimony was not admissible under FRE 702 and Daubert because the testimony was based on an examination of too few products. The district court found that [s]uch testimony clearly would not be based upon sufficient facts or data to be admissible in this Court and without damages evidence the plaintiffs' claims must fail. See id. Observing that the district court doubtless would have had to determine the admissibility of the expert testimony at some point, we concluded that this basis did not justify dismissal of the case. Id. at 742. We noted that there were two major problems with the district court's ruling that the expert's testimony was inadmissible. First, the plaintiffs had absolutely no warning prior to the district court's order of dismissal that the district court would be considering, let alone ruling on, the admissibility of [their expert's] testimony. Id. Second, [u]ndoubtedly due to the lack of prior notice, neither side . . . provided the district court with detailed briefing regarding the admissibility of [the plaintiffs'] expert's testimony; in turn, the district court record lacked specific findings as to why it concluded the testimony was inadmissible. Id. Thus, the circumstances strongly suggested that the district court had `simply made an off-the-cuff decision to [exclude] the expert testimony.' Id. (alteration in original) (quoting Dodge, 328 F.3d at 1223). Accordingly, we determined that the district court abused its discretion in excluding the expert's testimony. Procter & Gamble Co. starkly reveals the weaknesses of Mr. Nacchio's claim of unfair surprise. There, admissibility of the plaintiffs' expert testimony had not been the subject of any filings or discussion, and the proponents had not submitted any expert reports to the district court, the district court had not heard any expert testimony, and no motion to limit or exclude [the plaintiffs'] expert was before the court. Id. at 741. By contrast, the expert admissibility issue here had been put before Mr. Nacchio multiple times, and the district court's ruling offered specific support for its determination and referenced relevant filings by both Mr. Nacchio and the government. In short, Mr. Nacchio's claim of unfair surprise is woefully deficient and does not provide a basis for us to conclude that the district court abused its discretion in excluding Professor Fischel's testimony.
Mr. Nacchio had an adequate opportunity to present evidence in support of Professor Fischel's methodology or to request an evidentiary hearing in advance of presenting the expert's testimony. In addition to a continuous opportunity to file a written proffer of evidence, or to file a request for a hearing or a continuance, there were several specific instances, arising after the Daubert issue had come into focus, where Mr. Nacchio could have presented evidence or requested a hearing to meet his burden of admissibility:  Initially, in his response to the government's April 3rd motion to exclude Professor Fischel's expert testimony through which Mr. Nacchio certainly was apprised of the extant Daubert issueMr. Nacchio could have addressed the Daubert issue more thoroughly, offered substantially more methodology evidence, or requested a hearing or a continuance. Instead, Mr. Nacchio set forth only a few sentences regarding the propriety of Professor Fischel's opinions under FRE 702. [15] Aplt.App. 466.  During the trial's lunch recess on Wednesday, April 4, the court spoke with the attorneys and noted that Mr. Nacchio had filed a response to the government's pending motion to exclude, but Mr. Nacchio did not make any requests regarding Professor Fischel. Aplt.App. 3721-23.  At the close of the government's case on April 4, the court heard Mr. Nacchio's motion for acquittal and discussed various matters with the attorneys. When the government asked about Professor Fischel, the court stated that it had formed some preliminary views but was not yet ready to rule. Beyond noting that Professor Fischel would be the third defense witness, Mr. Nacchio did not offer any more information to the court. Aplt. App. 3834-35.  The morning of Thursday, April 5, the court discussed pending motions and ruled on five of them. When the court mentioned the motion to exclude Professor Fischel's expert testimony (I know you want a ruling), Mr. Nacchio said nothing, and was silent regarding the matter while the first two defense witnesses testified. Aplt.App. 3870.  Although Mr. Nacchio argues that the ruling was issued before either party could say anything to the court, prior to calling Professor Fischel to the stand on April 5, Mr. Nacchio had the opportunity to, but did not, request time for argument, a hearing, or a continuance. When Professor Fischel was called, the court immediately announced that it needed to make some legal rulings and dismissed the jury. Aplt.App. 3913. Mr. Nacchio asserts that the district court's refusal to allow him to orally argue Professor Fischel's admissibility was unfair on account of the court's earlier statement that I'm not criticizing anybody for not submitting things in writing. Aplt. App. 3603. For two reasons, however, this argument is unavailing. First, the district court appears to have made this statement not as a general instruction to be applied wholesale throughout the trial, but in response to Mr. Nacchio's specific inquiry as to the court's preferred practice for entertaining a Fed.R.Crim.P. 29 motion for a judgment of acquittal. See id. (Normally, it's done orally, and it's certainly appropriate in this case. (emphasis added)). Second, there is no evidence that the district court refused to hear Mr. Nacchio's admissibility argument because it was made orally; rather, the district court denied Mr. Nacchio yet another opportunity to set forth a basis for admission because this argument could have been presentedno matter the format before the ruling was made, particularly in response to the government's motion to exclude. The district court's ruling was not a penalty or a punishment; [16] rather, the exclusion was the obligatory result of Mr. Nacchio's failure to meet his requisite burden under FRE 702 despite serial opportunities to do so. While it would be an abuse of discretion for the district court to unreasonably limit the evidence upon which it based its Daubert decision, see Dodge, 328 F.3d at 1228, that did not happen here. There is no evidence that the district court had imposed filing restrictions or had otherwise prohibited Mr. Nacchio from offering evidence or making a request. Cf. id. at 1223-24, 1229 (concluding that in a case where the expert testimony is crucial to the ultimate outcome, is vigorously challenged, and has several obvious areas of concern, it was unreasonable for the court to severely limit the filing of underlying documentation, decline to accept proffers, and to otherwise circumscribe the information upon which it based its decision); see also In re Paoli R.R. Yard PCB Litig., 916 F.2d 829, 854 & n. 30 (3d Cir.1990). Mr. Nacchio made no mention of a Daubert hearing to the district court until he inserted the footnote in his motion filed after the court issued its ruling excluding Professor Fischel's expert testimony. Even in this footnote, Mr. Nacchio fails to address the key concern that the district court previously had highlighted in excluding Professor Fischel's testimonyhis methodology for this particular case. Mr. Nacchio asserts that he lacked pre-ruling opportunity to present evidence or request a hearing because he had been under tremendous time pressure. Any purported lack of time to prepare a response must be considered in the context of months of trial and witness preparation that both parties had undertaken. Although Mr. Nacchio may have been on a tight deadline, a request for a continuance or a Daubert hearing, prior to calling Professor Fischel to the stand, would have been rather simple to undertake and certainly would not have required much time at all. The district court, having been alerted to the need for a ruling on admissibility and having given the parties an opportunity to present their arguments, was obligated to perform its gatekeeping function. See Macsenti, 237 F.3d at 1233-34; Goebel, 215 F.3d at 1088. Therefore, it should have come as no surprise to Mr. Nacchio that the district court ruled on admissibility; indeed, by waiting to rule until Professor Fischel actually was called, it had prolonged the opportunity for Mr. Nacchio to further address the Daubert challenge until such a ruling was compelled by Professor Fischel's imminent testimony. Instead, after the district judge made clear his need for some proffer of data or literature underlying the expert's assumptions and conclusions, . . . the defense offered practically nothing, despite repeated opportunities to do so. United States v. Brien, 59 F.3d 274, 277 (1st Cir. 1995).
If Mr. Nacchio desired an evidentiary hearing, he bore the burden of requesting one. As explained below, Tenth Circuit case law does not mandate that a hearing be held, and neither the government nor the district court was under any obligation to call for a hearing or to prod Mr. Nacchio to supplement his filings. According to Mr. Nacchio, the only directive he had received from the district court was to comply with Rule 16, and he read the court's order for a revised Rule 16 disclosure at face value. Even assuming that this was a natural reading of the court's order, however, the proponent's burden of establishing admissibility of expert testimony arises from the offering of the expert for trial; it is not triggered by a court's directive. See Fed.R.Evid. 702 advisory committee's note (2000) ([T]he admissibility of all expert testimony is governed by the principles of [Fed.R.Evid.] 104(a). Under that Rule, the proponent has the burden of establishing that the pertinent admissibility requirements are met by a preponderance of the evidence.). Relatedly, as discussed above, the government's motion to exclude clearly set forth the FRE 702 issue, regardless of whether the parties' previous communications had taken place in a Rule 16 context. In ordinary motion practice, a respondent must address any and all issues raised by a moving party's papers, or else face the very real possibility that it will be deemed to have abandoned its right to do so. [17] See, e.g., Gen. Elec. Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136, 146-47, 118 S.Ct. 512, 139 L.Ed.2d 508 (1997) (finding no abuse of discretion in district court's exclusion of expert testimony when the proponent's response was nonresponsive to the critique of the opponent, even though the district court did not hold oral argument); In re Rezulin Prods. Liab. Litig., 224 F.R.D. 346, 352 (S.D.N.Y. 2004) (It would be inappropriate to permit litigants to take it upon themselves to litigate issues in whatever piecemeal fashion they wish, trying out one argument and then, if unsuccessful, starting all over again with a new one. . . . Plaintiffs' obligation was to make their complete argument. . . and then to abide the result.); cf. Feinstein v. Resolution Trust Corp., 942 F.2d 34, 43-44 (1st Cir.1991) (In this case, there is no sound reason to overlook the usual rules of pleading and practice and relieve the appellants from their seemingly deliberate choice to stand or fall upon their complaint as pleaded. . . . [W]e are not so foolhardy as to require district judges to act as mind readers [regarding plaintiffs' desire to amend their complaint].). Courts are not disposed to allow litigants to have two or more bites at the proverbial apple. See, e.g., EEOC v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 925 F.2d 619, 631 & n. 20 (3d Cir.1991) (A remand should not be ordered when `two bites of the apple' would be given to a litigant who, under circumstances such as those at bar, has neglected to produce evidence to support a desired finding and has, therefore, failed to carry its requisite burden as to a particular issue.); cf. Weisgram v. Marley Co., 528 U.S. 440, 455, 120 S.Ct. 1011, 145 L.Ed.2d 958 (2000) (It is implausible to suggest, post- Daubert, that parties will initially present less than their best expert evidence in the expectation of a second chance should their first try fail.). Thus, having been placed on notice by the government's motion to exclude that the admissibility of Professor Fischel's testimony under FRE 702 was at issue, Mr. Nacchioin addition to addressing any Rule 16 concernswas obliged to marshal his FRE 702 arguments that would support admission of Professor Fischel's testimony. Our adversary system of justice simply does not afford a respondent, like Mr. Nacchio, the luxury of ignoring the ebb and flow of litigation and steadfastly adhering to the initial framing of the issues. Cf. Lujan v. Nat'l Wildlife Fed'n, 497 U.S. 871, 897, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 111 L.Ed.2d 695 (1990) ([A] litigant's failure to buttress its position because of confidence in the strength of that position is always indulged in at the litigant's own risk.). That conclusion, moreover, is not enervated by the criminal nature of the proceedings. Like civil parties, criminal defendants must follow the well-settled rules of litigation. See, e.g., Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973) (Few rights are more fundamental than that of an accused to present witnesses in his own defense. In the exercise of this right, the accused, as is required of the State, must comply with established rules of procedure and evidence designed to assure both fairness and reliability in the ascertainment of guilt and innocence. (citations omitted)); United States v. Barajas-Chavez, 358 F.3d 1263, 1266 (10th Cir.2004) (A defendant must raise a motion to suppress evidence before trial or that objection is waived.). Mr. Nacchio also asserts that he had no reason to request a hearing, because the government already had done so. However, Mr. Nacchio's response to the motion to excludewhich stated that the motion was without merit and should be denied, without itself requesting additional proceedingsplausibly could be read as both opposing the government's hearing request and inviting the court to rule on admissibility without further proceedings. Aplt.App. 463, 468. Furthermore, Mr. Nacchio was on notice that if he desired an evidentiary hearing to be held during these proceedings, he needed to request one. Specifically, the district court judge's published practice standards, of which Mr. Nacchio was aware, see Aplee. Supp. En Banc App. 63, provided that any party opposing a motion must state to the court whether that party believes an evidentiary hearing is necessary and estimate the length of such a hearing. Aplee. Supp. Br. Add. ¶ 17, at 8. As conceded by Mr. Nacchio in his belated mention of a hearing to the district court, see Aplt.App. 481 n. 4, Tenth Circuit cases have interpreted Kumho Tire 's directive that courts must have leeway in applying the Daubert framework to mean that although Daubert hearings are the most common way to fulfil the gatekeeper function, `such a process is not specifically mandated.' See Turner, 285 F.3d at 913 (quoting Goebel, 215 F.3d at 1087); accord Dodge, 328 F.3d at 1228; United States v. Nichols, 169 F.3d 1255, 1263 (10th Cir.1999); Call, 129 F.3d at 1405. [18] Therefore, if Mr. Nacchio was not satisfied with the district court's failure to address the government's request for a hearing, the burden of requesting one fell to him. Cf. Greenlaw v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 128 S.Ct. 2559, 2564, 171 L.Ed.2d 399 (2008) ([O]ur adversary system is designed around the premise that the parties know what is best for them, and are responsible for advancing the facts and arguments entitling them to relief. (internal quotation marks omitted)). Mr. Nacchio argues that he had no burden to request a hearing, in light of our case, United States v. Roberts, [19] as well as some Third Circuit decisions, which he cites for the proposition that district courts err when they exclude expert testimony without conducting a hearing, when the record is inadequate to allow for a proper reliability determination. Mr. Nacchio's argument is contrary, however, to the case law of this and other circuits. And his cited cases do not stand for the proposition that the burden was on the district court, rather than on him, to initiate an evidentiary hearing on the Daubert issue. More specifically, as to Roberts, Mr. Nacchio contends that the case indicates that the improper exclusion of Fischel requires reversal regardless of whether Nacchio provided sufficient information to establish admissibility before the court's in limine ruling. Aplt. Supp. Br. 29. In Roberts, a tribal official was indicted on sexual abuse charges based on the allegations of three women. 88 F.3d at 875. The government sought to introduce under FRE 404(b) evidence of the defendant's sexual abuse of nine other women not named in the indictment. Id. at 879. As part of its FRE 404(b) analysis, see, e.g., United States v. Parker, 553 F.3d 1309, 1313-14 (10th Cir.2009), the district court excluded the evidence under FRE 403 on the ground that its potential prejudice substantially outweighed its probative value. Roberts, 88 F.3d at 879. The government appealed, and this Court reversed and ordered a pretrial hearing. Id. at 881. We concluded that the district court failed to analyze the evidence in sufficient detail to determine whether it would demonstrate that the defendant engaged in a common scheme of sexual abusethe government's strongest rationale for introducing this evidence at trial. Id. at 880-81. We further determined that the government needed to submit additional information about the women's proposed testimony on remand, because the record was insufficient to determine whether the testimony would sustain the common scheme hypothesis. Id. at 881. Roberts should not be interpreted, however, as having placed the burden on the district court here to order a hearing, for two principal reasons. First, in Roberts, we emphasized that our ruling rested upon the unique and specific circumstances present before us, and we did not purport to extend our holding beyond the Rule 404(b) context. Id. Indeed, we recognized that even in that context our holding would have limited application: [T]his holding does not portend a requirement that district courts conduct similar hearings in all Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) cases involving the government's attempt to establish the defendant's common scheme or plan. The nature of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution will dictate how the issue must be resolved. Id. Second, the Roberts holding primarily was based on the district court's failure to appropriately analyze the proposed testimony, not the insufficiency of the information submitted by the proponent (i.e., the government). The instruction that the government must submit more information was a secondary consideration to the remand that was required due to the district court's failure to direct enough attention to the evidence of the government's salient theory of relief (i.e., common scheme or plan). See id. at 880-81; see also United States v. Roberts, 185 F.3d 1125, 1142 (10th Cir.1999) (We believe the district court followed our remand order and decided correctly . . . the six women's testimony was admissible to show a common scheme.). As for the Third Circuit case law, Mr. Nacchio relies heavily on Padillas v. Stork-Gamco, Inc., 186 F.3d 412 (3d Cir. 1999). To the extent that Padillas should be looked to as persuasive authority, however, it does not mandate a hearing in every instance of Daubert gatekeeping. In Padillas, the Third Circuit reversed a grant of summary judgment premised upon the inadmissibility of an expert's report under Daubert and ordered an evidentiary hearing. In that case, the appellate court stated that plaintiff could not have known in advance the direction the district court's opinion might take and thus needed an opportunity to be heard on the critical issues before having his case dismissed. Id. at 417-18. The Padillas court emphasized that the district court had not offered plaintiff sufficient process to defend the admission of the expert testimony and that the district court's rejection of the testimony did not establish that there were not good grounds for the testimony, but, rather, that the opinions were insufficiently explained and their foundations inadequately explicated. Id. at 418. Thus, Padillas is readily distinguishable from this case, in that: (1) Mr. Nacchio knew the court would have to determine Professor Fischel's admissibility, given that the government's motion to exclude was ripe for decision and Mr. Nacchio actually called Professor Fischel to the stand; and (2) as explained above, Mr. Nacchio passed over numerous opportunities to defend admissibility and provide more information about methodology. In fact, Padillas is most closely analogous to our decision in Procter & Gamble Co., 427 F.3d at 742, which, as discussed above, involved circumstances that sharply contrast with those here. See supra Part II(B)(2)(a). Moreover, the language of Padillas itself does not mandate a hearing under the instant circumstances: An in limine hearing will obviously not be required whenever a Daubert objection is raised to a proffer of expert evidence. Whether to hold one rests in the sound discretion of the district court. But when the ruling on admissibility turns on factual issues, as it does here, at least in the summary judgment context, failure to hold such a hearing may be an abuse of discretion. We hold that in this case, it was. Padillas, 186 F.3d at 418 (emphasis added). As evident by the underscored text, Padillas narrowly tailored its holding to the summary judgment context and the factual circumstances of the case before it. Thus, Mr. Nacchio's argument that Padillas required the district court during the course of this criminal trial to sua sponte order an evidentiary hearing fails. Furthermore, more recent decisions from the Third Circuit have rejected the notion that a hearing is always required for Daubert gatekeeping. As the Third Circuit stated in In re TMI Litigation: We did not intend to suggest [in Padillas ] that an in limine hearing is always required for Daubert gatekeeping. 199 F.3d at 159. Further,  Padillas certainly does not establish that a District Court must provide a plaintiff with an open-ended and never-ending opportunity to meet a Daubert challenge until plaintiff `gets it right.' Id.; accord Oddi v. Ford Motor Co., 234 F.3d 136, 151-55 (3d Cir.2000); Nelson, 243 F.3d at 249 n. 3. Therefore, neither Roberts nor holdings from the Third Circuit lift the burden of requesting a hearing from Mr. Nacchio.
The district court fulfilled its duty as gatekeeper and did not abuse its discretion in excluding Professor Fischel's expert testimony. [20] There was a sufficiently developed record, a concrete reliability determination, and specific findings and discussion by the district court. See Dodge, 328 F.3d at 1223. In particular, the court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Mr. Nacchio did not carry his burden under Daubert. [21] In addition to the sentence included in his response to the motion to exclude noting that Professor Fischel had undertaken extensive review of SEC filings, press releases and other financial data, Aplt. App. 466, Mr. Nacchio considered his revised Rule 16 disclosure to be a submission on Professor Fischel's methodology. Aplee. Supp. En Banc App. 50. This filing indicated that Professor Fischel was basing his opinion on analysis of, inter alia, market  and stock-related information. These assertions indicate that Professor Fischel was applying his experience to material that he reviewed to formulate an opinion. An expert witness's testimony can rely solely on experience. When that is the case, however, the witness must explain how that experience leads to the conclusion reached, why that experience is a sufficient basis for the opinion, and how that experience is reliably applied to the facts. Fed.R.Evid. 702 advisory committee's note (2000). Mr. Nacchio did not offer any of this additional information. The trial court's gatekeeping function requires more than simply `taking the expert's word for it.' Id. [N]othing in either Daubert or the Federal Rules of Evidence requires a district court to admit opinion evidence that is connected to existing data only by the ipse dixit of the expert. Joiner, 522 U.S. at 146, 118 S.Ct. 512. It appears that Mr. Nacchio relied on Professor Fischel's qualifications to tip the balance in favor of the admissibility of his expert testimony. In doing so, Mr. Nacchio ignored the precept that when assessing expert testimony, the question before the trial court [i]s specific, not general. Kumho Tire, 526 U.S. at 156, 119 S.Ct. 1167. Although Professor Fischel generally has been permitted to testify in the past, and a district court might well respect his credentials, the court had an obligation to assess the methodology that Professor Fischel had employed in the case at hand. See id. at 153-56, 119 S.Ct. 1167; Rodriguez-Felix, 450 F.3d at 1122. Mr. Nacchio could not assume that his expert's testimony would be admitted because other courts had allowed it in; he had to carry his burden of demonstrating the admissibility of Professor Fischel's testimony in this particular case. Mr. Nacchio, however, failed to satisfy the district court that Professor Fischel's testimony was reliable. Thus, the district court was well within its discretion in excluding it. See Rodriguez-Felix, 450 F.3d at 1125 (finding no abuse of discretion when the district court excluded testimony based on the woefully inadequate report regarding proffered testimony). In Sprint, the Supreme Court explained that on account of the district court's familiarity with the case and greater experience with evidentiary matters, this Court must afford broad discretion to the court's evidentiary rulings. Sprint, 128 S.Ct. at 1144-45. Here, the district court properly performed its Daubert gatekeeping role in excluding Professor Fischel's testimony as inadmissible for lack of reliability under FRE 702, and Mr. Nacchio did not carry his burden of establishing the admissibility of Professor Fischel's testimony. Perhaps more to the point, the district court's exclusion of the testimony was not arbitrary, capricious, whimsical, or manifestly unreasonable; nor are we convinced that the district court made a clear error of judgment or exceeded the bounds of permissible choice in the circumstances.