Opinion ID: 1168194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: immunity extends to actions forming the basis of the testimony

Text: Respondents and amicus argue that the mere fact that Byrne testified on the basis of his engineering work should not insulate him from liability for negligence in the performance of that work. Put another way, it has been argued that Bruce and Smallwood are suing for negligent engineering, not for negligent testifying. We disagree. Suppose Bruce and Smallwood relied on Byrne-Stevens' engineering work in restoring their property, that the restoration was not successful and that Bruce and Smallwood sued for negligence, claiming as damages the cost of new engineering studies and further work on the land. In that case, it could be said that Bruce and Smallwood were suing Byrne-Stevens for negligent engineering. Here, however, the damage Bruce and Smallwood complain of is an inadequate recovery in litigation. They do not allege that Byrne-Stevens' engineering work would not enable a contractor to restore their land; they allege that the firm's estimate of the cost of such work was too low. However, that low estimate would not have damaged Bruce and Smallwood but for the fact that they relied on it in litigation. In short, it simply is not the case that the defendants were sued for negligent engineering. Bruce and Smallwood complain of negligence in providing expert testimony. Furthermore, the negligent engineering argument is inconsistent with witness immunity even in those cases in which respondents and amicus concede it is justified. For example, Bader represents the majority rule that psychiatrists and physicians are immune from suit based on diagnoses rendered in the course of judicial proceedings. Bader v. State, 43 Wn. App. 223, 716 P.2d 925 (1986). The cases so holding include claims for negligence, Snyder v. Faget, supra ; Dunbar v. Greenlaw, supra , as well as for intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and defamation. In each of these cases, one could argue that the wrong complained of was the erroneous diagnosis, rather than the testimony or report to the court. However, that argument has rarely been made and has never prevailed. There is a good reason for this. Witness immunity must extend to the basis of the witness' testimony, or the policies underlying such immunity would be undermined. An expert's courtroom testimony is the last act in a long, complex process of evaluation and consultation with the litigant. There is no way to distinguish the testimony from the acts and communications on which it is based. Unless the whole, integral enterprise falls within the scope of immunity, the chilling effect of threatened litigation will result in the adverse effects described above, regardless of the immunity shielding the courtroom testimony. The New Jersey court recognized this long ago in Middlesex Concrete Prods. & Excavating Corp. v. Carteret Indus. Ass'n, 68 N.J. Super. 85, 172 A.2d 22 (1961). Middlesex sued Carteret over progress payments on a sewage treatment plant. Carteret retained Philip B. Streander as a consulting engineer. Middlesex subsequently added Streander as a defendant, alleging tortious interference based on Streander's negative reports. The trial court dismissed the suit against Streander on grounds of witness immunity. Middlesex appealed and argued that Streander's report to Carteret: was not a step in a judicial proceeding and it afforded those harmed by it none of the protection which a judicial proceeding affords in that the report was not under oath; its author was not subject to prosecution for perjury; and the truth or falsity of its contents was not subject to the searching light of cross-examination. Middlesex, 68 N.J. Super. at 90. Nevertheless, the court held that Streander did fall within the broad scope of immunity for participants in judicial proceedings: The privilege or immunity is not limited to what a person may say under oath while on the witness stand. It extends to statements or communications in connection with a judicial proceeding.... ... If this were not so, every expert who acts as a consultant for a client with reference to proposed or actual litigation, and thereafter appears as an expert witness, would be liable to suit at the hands of his client's adversary on the theory that while the expert's testimony was privileged, his preliminary conferences with and reports to his client were not, and could form the basis of a suit for tortious interference. Middlesex, 68 N.J. Super. at 92. See also Western Technologies, Inc. v. Sverdrup & Parcel, Inc., 154 Ariz. 1, 739 P.2d 1318 (Ct. App. 1986); Adams v. Peck, 43 Md. App. 168, 403 A.2d 840 (1979). [4] In sum, the immunity of expert witnesses extends not only to their testimony, but also to acts and communications which occur in connection with the preparation of that testimony. Any other rule would be unrealistically narrow, would not reflect the realities of litigation and would undermine the gains in forthrightness on which the rule of witness immunity rests. Respondents and amicus argue that Byrne-Stevens should not be shielded from liability merely because its calculations were later used in court. If the issue is stated that way, we agree; but that is not the issue before us. We do not hold that any professional negligence is immunized whenever an expert later relies on it in court. In accord with existing law, we hold only that absolute immunity extends to acts and statements of experts which arise in the course of or preliminary to judicial proceedings. It may be helpful to contrast this case with our holding in Twelker v. Shannon & Wilson, Inc., 88 Wn.2d 473, 564 P.2d 1131 (1977). Twelker, a soils engineer, was retained to evaluate the risk of subsidence on certain property for the insurer of a contractor who had been retained to perform work there. Following a landslide, the contractor's insurer, fearing litigation, hired Shannon & Wilson to prepare a report on the same property. That report allegedly defamed Twelker. Twelker sued and Shannon & Wilson asserted absolute immunity based on the fact that its report was used in a subsequent lawsuit against Twelker and the contractor. We refused to grant absolute witness immunity to Shannon & Wilson because the statements at issue were uttered before the initiation of judicial proceedings. We cited Middlesex with approval and distinguished it on the ground that, in the New Jersey case, judicial proceedings were already underway when the tortious conduct allegedly took place. The extraordinary breadth of absolute privilege seems to us to require some compelling public policy justification for its existence. Where a lawsuit has been filed, the court in Middlesex found the need for uninhibited preliminary conferences and reports sufficient to establish such a justification.... [W]e decline to apply the absolute privilege accorded statements made in the course of or preliminary to judicial proceedings to the circumstances of this case. Twelker, at 478. The present case is clearly more like Middlesex than Twelker. Byrne-Stevens was hired specifically for litigation purposes. As we have explained above, the policies which justify witness immunity apply here, and Byrne-Stevens is entitled to the absolute privilege accorded statements made in the course of or preliminary to judicial proceedings ... Twelker, at 478. Byrne-Stevens' background work, which formed the basis of Byrne's courtroom testimony, therefore falls within the scope of the absolute privilege. Since immunity must extend to the basis of the witness' testimony, Byrne-Stevens cannot be held liable for negligence in engineering in disregard of the fact that that work formed the basis of its principal's courtroom testimony.