Opinion ID: 2226862
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Scope of Dr. Schoene's Testimony

Text: Defendants next contend that the appellate court improperly held that the trial court had erroneously restricted the rebuttal testimony of Dr. Schoene. We disagree and affirm the appellate court decision. Originally, plaintiff only named Dr. Fintel as her expert. In August 1991, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment based on their claim that because plaintiff's only named expert, Dr. Fintel, was a cardiologist, he could establish neither the standard of care for a pulmonologist nor any deviation therefrom. Thus, in her September 1991 response to defendants' summary judgment motion, filed two months before the November 1991 trial, plaintiff asked the trial court to add Dr. Schoene to the list she previously disclosed under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 220 (134 Ill.2d R. 220) of expert witnesses she intended to call in her case in chief. The trial court denied defendants' motion for summary judgment and held that Dr. Fintel's testimony could suffice to establish the appropriate standard of care and any deviation therefrom because Dr. Fintel and defendants were all board-certified internists, and because of the close relation between the fields of pulmonology and cardiology and Dr. Fintel's experience in both. The court, however, refused to the permit Dr. Schoene to testify in plaintiff's case in chief because plaintiff did not originally disclose him as an expert in her case in chief. The court explained that the ensuing delays from allowing plaintiff to add Dr. Schoene as an expert in her case in chief would be unnecessarily burdensome. At trial, plaintiff relied on Dr. Fintel to establish the standard of care in her case in chief. After plaintiff rested, the trial court denied defendants' motion for a directed verdict, thus indicating that it found Dr. Fintel's testimony legally sufficient. Defendants then countered in their case in chief with testimony to the effect that although Dr. Fintel probably correctly stated the applicable standard of care for cardiologists, he did not correctly state the applicable standard of care for pulmonologists. They further testified that the medical records and information that Dr. Zia received would not have signaled Hoem's impending heart condition to a pulmonologist, especially because pulmonologists are trained to notice mostly lung conditions. Plaintiff then offered Dr. Schoene in rebuttal to testify that Dr. Fintel did correctly state the applicable standard of care for pulmonologists, and that a pulmonologist such as himself would have noticed Hoem's impending heart condition and sent Hoem immediately to obtain treatment for it. Defendants object to Dr. Schoene's testifying in rebuttal, and the trial court sustained that objection. The trial court held that Dr. Schoene could not testify to the general standard of care for pulmonologists because plaintiff should have presented that evidence in her case in chief. On appeal, the appellate court found that the trial court erred in restricting Dr. Schoene's testimony in rebuttal. That court found that defendants' experts had seriously impeached Dr. Fintel and that it was an abuse of discretion to prohibit the plaintiff from rebutting this testimony. On appeal to this court, defendants argue that the trial court properly restricted the scope of Dr. Schoene's testimony. They maintain that plaintiff committed a fundamental tactical error in the preparation of her case for trial by retaining an inappropriate expert and should not be allowed to rectify this mistake through rebuttal. We cannot agree with this tactical error analysis. To adopt the defendants' view on this issue would be tantamount to requiring a plaintiff to anticipate and present all conceivably relevant evidence in her case in chief, because, otherwise, she would be barred from presenting that evidence in rebuttal in the event defendants presented evidence in their case in chief that plaintiff needed to counter. As stated by the appellate court in this case, such a rule would be antithetical to the concerns expressed by all involved in our civil justice system about its present costs, wastes, and delays. 239 Ill.App.3d at 619, 179 Ill.Dec. 986, 606 N.E.2d 818. Defendants further argue that Dr. Schoene's testimony would not be proper rebuttal evidence. They argue that there is scant evidence from the record which would indicate that defendants had impeached Dr. Fintel on the standard of care issue. Contrary to defendants' contention, there is evidence in the record indicating that defendants had impeached Dr. Fintel. Specifically, defendants' expert, Dr. Buckingham, testified that from his perspective as a pulmonologist, the stress test results did not require an immediate referral to a cardiologist. When asked whether he had any disagreement in whole or in part with Dr. Fintel's statements on that aspect of the case, Dr. Buckingham responded: My disagreement was in whole. I looked at the same cardiogram. Dr. Fintel is a cardiologist, and I'm a pulmonologist. I looked at the cardiogram-tracings and did not see anything I as a pulmonologist would identify as abnormalities. Dr. Buckingham further stated: As I say, you can have as many interpretations as you have interpreters, and they may not always agree, but certainly a cardiologist might look at an electrocardiographic tracing differently than a pulmonologist would, but I don't think the pulmonologist could be held to the standard of the cardiologist because he's a pulmonologist. This testimony could have left the jury with the impression that plaintiff's expert had expressed an inappropriate standard of care with regard to reading the test results. Given these circumstances, we find that plaintiff was entitled to have Dr. Schoene's testify on rebuttal.