Opinion ID: 1881657
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Admissibility of the Testimony of William Storer

Text: At trial, the Rothsteins elicited the testimony of William Storer, a handwriting expert. Mr. Storer testified that some of the November 22 entries made by Dr. Prater in Lisa's medical record were not made on the same surface as other November 22 entries, or with the same pen, or both. From this evidence, Mr. Storer opined that these entries were not made in immediate sequence with the preceding November 22 entries. The defendants allege that the trial court erred in admitting Mr. Storer's testimony because the testimony could not substantially assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or determine a fact in issue. Tenn. R. Evid. 702. Further, the defendants argue that the evidence should have been excluded because Mr. Storer's testimony was speculative, invited the trier of fact to engage in impermissible inference stacking, and related to Dr. Prater's credibility. Mr. Storer was established to be an expert in the area of handwriting. His testimony could have substantially assisted the jury in determining what caused the apparent differences in the questioned medical record entries. The testimony was evidence that the questioned entries were made at another time than the entries directly preceding them in the record dated November 22. From that evidence the jury could have permissibly inferred that the entries were made after Lisa's death to conceal a breach of the standard of care. See Snyder, 825 S.W.2d at 415. Mr. Storer's testimony may have brought into question when Dr. Prater made these entries. This testimony, however, is not impermissibly related to Dr. Prater's credibility. Rule 702 does not require that an expert be neutral. See Neil P. Cohen, Donald F. Paine, & Sarah Y. Sheppeard, Tennessee Law of Evidence, § 7.02[3], 7-20 (2000). An expert's purpose is to provide an opinion about a disputed issue. The opinion will often vary from the opinion of other experts and may contradict factual testimony from other witnesses. See, e.g., Edwards v. State, 540 S.W.2d 641 (Tenn. 1976). Mr. Storer was not commenting upon Dr. Prater's truthfulness. Mr. Storer was testifying only as to his observation of the medical record and as to his expert conclusions based upon those observations. His testimony did not evaluate or comment upon Dr. Prater's credibility. See Herbert v. Brazeale, 902 S.W.2d 933, 937 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1995). The trial court, therefore, did not err in admitting Mr. Storer's testimony.