Opinion ID: 1871932
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Declarations made to Physicians Employed as Prospective Expert Witnesses.

Text: McCormick on Evidence, pages 565-566 seems to make a clear presentation of the law applicable to declarations made to physicians employed as prospective expert witnesses as follows: Many courts draw a sharp line, evidently, between physicians consulted for treatment and those employed solely as prospective expert witnesses. As to the latter, they have been inclined to impose special restrictions which are set out below. 1. It has been held, probably by the majority of courts that have passed on the question, that descriptive statements of present pain or symptoms when made to a doctor employed only to testify do not qualify for admission as substantive evidence under the present exception to the hearsay rule for statements of bodily condition. 2. The rule prevails generally that expert witnesses may testify to the information upon which they have relied in reaching their conclusions, and in respect to medical witnesses this practice would permit the doctor to give a general account not only of facts observed, but of the `history' including the patient's statements as to injury, past symptoms, and present feelings as of the time of the examination. When presented for this purpose, the statements are not evidence of the matters stated, and hence not hearsay, but are merely explanatory of the opinion, enabling the jury to weigh it in the light of its basis. Most courts make no distinction, in respect to using the `history' as grounds of opinion between doctors who attended for treatment and those who examined the patient only to prepare themselves to testify. A few courts, however, have held or intimated that these latter experts may not recount what the patient has told them, even for the non-hearsay purpose of explaining the grounds of opinion. 3. The minority group of courts which adopt this last restriction limit correspondingly the admissibility of the opinions of the expert who has been employed only to examine and testify. Such experts, they hold, are confined to giving opinions based solely upon the objective facts observed by them (or upon a hypothetical question), and are barred from giving an opinion based even in part upon `subjective' facts, that is upon what the patient has said about the history of his injury or his suffering and symptoms. This runs counter to the practice of medical consultants in considering such histories in forming their professional conclusions upon which they act decisively every day, and counter also to the general rule as to medical testimony which admits conclusions so formed. The establishment of a causal connection between the fall and the thrombosis is doubtful even if the history of the case as declared to Dr. Burtner is taken as established by competent evidence. However, there is no sworn evidence to support the history of the case as to the declarations made by the plaintiff just before trial as narrated by Dr. Burtner and, to a lesser degree by Dr. Jarrett. The opinions of the physicians that the coronary thrombosis was related to the fall is based on the plaintiff's declared history is not substantive evidence of the truth of the matter declared since it does not fall within any exception to the hearsay rule of evidence; hence there is no showing of causal connection between the fall and the coronary thrombosis. For the foregoing reasons I would reverse.