Opinion ID: 2363060
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Testimony of Mary D'Alton, M.D.

Text: The plaintiffs first argue that D'Alton's testimony on the cause and timing of the baby's injury was inadmissible because: (1) her opinions on these issues were not included in her report in violation of RSA 516:29-b, II (Supp.2006); and (2) she was not qualified to give an opinion on these issues. The defendants argue that the plaintiffs have not preserved these arguments for our review. Alternatively, the defendants argue that even if these issues were preserved, the trial court did not engage in an unsustainable exercise of discretion. As we will not review any issue that was not raised below, State v. Blackmer, 149 N.H. 47, 48, 816 A.2d 1014 (2003), we first address the preservation issue. Before trial, the plaintiffs filed a motion in limine to preclude D'Alton from testifying about the timing of the baby's injury, claiming that it lacked the requisite indicia of reliability required by New Hampshire Rule of Evidence 702 (Rule 702). In denying this motion, the court reviewed D'Alton's deposition and held that her opinion was sufficiently reliable on the issue of timing. At trial, the plaintiffs objected only once during D'Alton's testimony regarding an issue that they have not appealed. The record does not reflect that any post-trial motions were filed. Generally, a [party] must make a specific and contemporaneous objection during trial to preserve an issue for appellate review. Klar v. Mitoulas, 145 N.H. 483, 488, 767 A.2d 401 (2000) (quotation omitted). The burden is on the appealing party to demonstrate that the issues on appeal were raised before the trial court. Bean v. Red Oak Prop. Mgmt., 151 N.H. 248, 250, 855 A.2d 564 (2004). This allows the trial court to consider errors as they occur and remedy them as necessary. State v. Ayer, 150 N.H. 14, 21, 834 A.2d 277 (2003), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 942, 124 S.Ct. 1668, 158 L.Ed.2d 366 (2004). However, [a] motion in limine is sufficient to preserve an issue for appeal without an objection at trial if the trial court definitively rules on the issue prior to trial. A ruling on a motion in limine is definitive when the court is sufficiently alerted to the issue and the court's written order demonstrates that it considered the issue and ruled on it. Klar, 145 N.H. at 488-89, 767 A.2d 401 (quotation omitted). The defendants argue that the plaintiffs' motion in limine is insufficient as a matter of law to preserve the issues . . . on appeal concerning D'Alton's testimony because [t]he sole issue raised in plaintiffs' motion concerned the unreliability of D'Alton's opinion on the timing of [the baby's] injury and therefore no definitive pretrial ruling on the plaintiffs' appeal issues was made by the trial court. We agree that the issues regarding D'Alton's report and her qualifications to testify on the cause of the injury were not preserved by the plaintiffs' motion in limine. However, we hold that the motion did preserve the issue regarding D'Alton's qualifications to testify on the timing of the injury. The plaintiff's motion in limine argued only that D'Alton's testimony regarding timing would be unreliable. The motion did not argue that the testimony was inadmissible because the defendants failed to comply with the disclosure requirements of RSA 516:29-b (Supp.2006) or Superior Court Rule 35(f). The trial court's order denying the plaintiffs' motion specifically focused upon the issue of reliability and did not discuss disclosure issues. Likewise, neither the plaintiffs' motion nor the court's order addressed D'Alton's testimony about the cause of the injury. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court was not sufficiently alerted to these issues and therefore they were not preserved by the motion in limine. As no objections on these issues were made at trial, we find that they are not preserved for our review. In contrast, the plaintiffs' motion in limine was sufficient to preserve their argument that D'Alton was not qualified to offer an opinion regarding timing as required by Rule 702 and RSA 516:29-a (Supp.2006). The plaintiffs' motion alleged that D'Alton's testimony was unreliable, in part, because she was only the [d]efendants' liability expert who planned to defer to the . . . pediatric neurologist on the timing of [the] injuries. In its order, the trial court cited to Rule 702 and RSA 516:29-a, which deal with expert qualifications, and ruled: that [D'Alton] defers to pediatric neurologists on the exact timing of [the] injury does not undercut her qualification to offer the opinion at issue here. (Emphasis added.) Accordingly, as this issue was preserved for our review, we address it. The plaintiffs argue that D'Alton is not qualified to offer an opinion on the timing of the injury because: (1) her specialty is maternal fetal medicine; (2) she has never seen a Bandl's Ring in a premature infant; and (3) she admitted that she would defer to a pediatric neurologist or radiologist on the timing. We disagree. Under Rule of Evidence 702, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto. In deciding whether to qualify a witness as an expert, the trial judge must conduct an adequate investigation of the expert's qualifications. Because the trial judge has the opportunity to hear and observe the witness, the decision whether a witness qualifies as an expert is within the trial judge's discretion. Hodgdon v. Frisbie Mem. Hosp., 147 N.H. 286, 289, 786 A.2d 859 (2001) (quotation, citation, and ellipsis omitted). RSA 516:29-a provides, in pertinent part: A witness shall not be allowed to offer expert testimony unless the court finds: (a) Such testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data; (b) Such testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and (c) The witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case. RSA 516:29-a, I. D'Alton's background includes many years in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. She is a supervisor at her hospital, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and the author of numerous medical chapters, books, and abstracts. In her deposition, D'Alton gave several reasons to support her opinion on timing, referring to her experience in delivering many, many babies in [her] entire practice and witness[ing] them and see[ing] the results. Having this information before it, the trial court reasonably could have found that she was qualified to give her opinion regarding the injury. The lack of specialization in a particular medical field does not automatically disqualify a doctor from testifying as an expert in that field. Hodgdon, 147 N.H. at 289, 786 A.2d 859. Accordingly, we cannot find that the trial court committed an unsustainable exercise of discretion in permitting D'Alton to testify regarding the cause and timing of the injury.