Opinion ID: 2332538
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: wal-mart's motion for judgment as a matter of law

Text: [¶ 31] Wal-Mart moved for judgment as a matter of law on the ground that Walter failed to present any expert evidence on the pharmacist's standard of care. It points out that Lovin was not designated as an expert. In this case the testimony of an expert was not necessary. We have said that where professional negligence and its harmful results are sufficiently obvious as to lie within common knowledge no expert testimony is necessary. Jim Mitchell and Jed Davis, P.A. v. Jackson, 627 A.2d 1014, 1017 (Me.1993) (quoting Cyr v. Giesen, 150 Me. 248, 252, 108 A.2d 316, 318 (1954)). The negligence of the pharmacist and the harmful results were sufficiently obvious to be within the common knowledge of a lay person. It does not take an expert to know that filling a prescription with the wrong drug and failing to take the steps in place in that pharmacy to check for the wrong drug is negligence.