Opinion ID: 1394134
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: exclusion of expert testimony as to the cause of the accident

Text: The City argues that, having given jury Instruction No. 22, the district court erred in prohibiting the City's expert, James Pline, from stating his opinion that the cause of the accident was not related to a failure to give a right-of-way indication to drivers approaching a signalized intersection. It was established at trial that Pline was intimately familiar with the MUTCD and his technical background qualified him as an expert in traffic engineering. Pline testified that, in his opinion, the points at which Oak Street converges with Jefferson Avenue and 13th Avenue constitute two separate intersections and that only the Oak-Jefferson intersection was signalized. However, when counsel for the City asked Pline what the existence of one or two intersections had to do with the cause of the accident, the plaintiffs objected. The district court sustained the objection. Section 4B-12 of the MUTCD, which was the basis for Instruction No. 22, provides that drivers approaching a signalized intersection shall be given a clear indication of their right-of-way assignment. The City argues that Pline would have testified that since Garcia was not approaching the signalized Oak-Jefferson intersection, any failure to give a clear indication of right-of-way in a signalized intersection could not, therefore, have caused the accident. Such a statement is arguably the equivalent of an opinion that the City did not violate section 4B-12 of the MUTCD and, in this form, would have been within Pline's area of expertise. However, our standard of review is clear: the admissibility of expert opinion testimony is discretionary with the trial court and its rulings will not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of an abuse of that discretion. Stoddard v. Nelson, 99 Idaho 293, 297, 581 P.2d 339, 343 (1978). The district judge apparently sustained the objection to the City's question on the ground that Pline was not qualified to testify as to the cause of the accident. Given the form of the question [6] and the fact that the City made no offer of proof to clarify the matter, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in sustaining the plaintiffs' objection.