Opinion ID: 1296397
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the state's medical testimony

Text: The defense urges on appeal that it was improper for the trial court to permit Doctors Salinquit and Villarin to testify from a staff report which contained, according to the defense, the opinions of others not called as witnesses; that no proper foundation was laid to permit the use of the report as a hospital record; and that Dr. Villarin's testimony was given in response to improper hypothetical questions, the answers to which asserted facts which were not in evidence. We find no merit in any of these contentions. The defense contends that the State offered no evidence establishing that the forensic staff notes from which Doctors Salinquit and Villarin testified were prepared in the course of their professional care or treatment of the defendant. The record does not sustain this argument. It appears that Dr. Salinquit saw Pendry, obtained a medical history from him and prepared a report regarding him. Dr. Villarin reviewed the report and personally examined Pendry. The evidence in the case makes it clear that the report which the doctors used in the courtroom was certainly one which was prepared at Weston State Hospital in the normal course of the examination of Pendry. The defense asserts, in essence, that every person at Weston State Hospital who had anything to do with Pendry's examination, care or treatment would have to be independently produced as a witness before either Dr. Villarin or Dr. Salinquit could utilize the report in testifying as to any conclusions based in whole or in part on examination, tests, treatment, observations or conclusions of others. This position is clearly not within the rule which we announced in State v. Myers, W.Va., 222 S.E.2d 300 (1976), and is not in accordance with the modern approach to the production of expert medical testimony. For example, Rule 703 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, applicable both in criminal and civil cases, permits an expert to testify as to his opinion so long as the facts or data upon which he bases his opinion are of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field of his expertise. The notes of the Advisory Committee indicate that the purpose of the rule is to bring judicial practice into line with the practice of experts themselves when not in court. With specific reference to physicians, for example, the Advisory Committee points out that a physician in his own practice bases his diagnoses on many different sources of information, including statements made by patients and relatives, reports and opinions from nurses, technicians and other doctors, and upon x-ray and other records. Illustrative of the rationale and legitimacy of expanding the utilization of hospital records and reports of tests and studies are United States v. Partin, 493 F.2d 750 (5th Cir. 1974); Tarvestad v. United States, 418 F.2d 1043 (8th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 935, 90 S.Ct. 944, 25 L.Ed.2d 116 (1970); Smith v. United States, 122 U.S. App.D.C. 300, 353 F.2d 838 (1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 974, 86 S.Ct. 1867, 16 L.Ed.2d 684 (1966); Alexander v. United States, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 303, 318 F.2d 274 (1963); People v. Ward, 61 Ill.2d 559, 338 N.E.2d 171 (1975); and Smith v. State, 259 Ind. 187, 285 N.E.2d 275 (1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1129, 93 S.Ct. 951, 35 L.Ed.2d 261 (1973). We adhere to the rule announced in State v. Myers, supra , regarding the utilization by an expert medical witness of records or documents whose reliability has been reasonably established and which have been kept in the regular course of professional care or treatment of the defendant and are of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the witness' particular field of expertise. We believe such a rule is consistent with the progressive and logical trend of bringing judicial practice into line with the practice of experts themselves when not in court, thereby tending to make their testimony less artificial and more meaningful. In this case, we do not consider the question of the admissibility of the records. The State made no effort to introduce the records as such. The doctors who were testifying had examined Pendry and merely used the staff report during the course of their testimony. It is abundantly clear that the opinions given in their testimony were their own opinions about which they could have been, and were, fully examined. The defense further argues that an improper hypothetical question was propounded to Dr. Villarin which permitted him to make reference to information which the defense asserts was not otherwise in evidence. Here again, the record does not sustain the position taken by the defense. The specific question was not objected to by the defense. No motion was made to strike the answer until after both the State and the defense had rested their cases and after a weekend recess was taken. Apart from that fact, the specific question was one which asked Dr. Villarin the basis for his opinion that Pendry knew the difference between right and wrong. In giving his answer Dr. Villarin referred to circumstances in which Pendry, after the shooting, is said to have suggested that the law be called so they can come and get me. The question which was propounded was not a hypothetical question, and we can perceive no reason why the doctor should not have been permitted to state the basis of his opinion that the defendant at the time of the commission of the offense knew the difference between right and wrong. If the remark upon which the doctor relied was erroneous or inaccurate or otherwise assailable, those matters could have been elicited upon proper cross-examination and would bear on the weight of the doctor's testimony rather than upon its admissibility as such.