Opinion ID: 1303321
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: trial court's refusal to allow dr. weins to offer an opinion as to causation

Text: In her final assignment of error, Kroeger contends that the trial court erred in refusing to allow Kroeger's expert witness Dr. Weins to render his opinion regarding the cause of Kroeger's accident. The trial court afforded Kroeger several opportunities to lay the proper foundation for Dr. Weins' opinion, including allowing Kroeger to recall Dr. Weins the day after her first unsuccessful attempt to elicit his opinion. However, Kroeger failed to establish sufficient foundation, and the trial court refused to allow Dr. Weins to state his opinion. Had Dr. Weins been allowed to give his opinion, he would have stated that the accident was caused by the TLA defect. The trial court found that the foundation for Dr. Weins' testimony was inadequate because Dr. Weins attempted to base his opinion on a factual scenario which was substantially different from what occurred during Kroeger's accident. During direct examination, Dr. Weins stated that an important factor in his analysis of the instant case was the effect that TLA would have on a vehicle that struck a curb at the time that the TLA effect manifested itself. Soon after that testimony was elicited, Kroeger's trial counsel asked Dr. Weins to offer an opinion as to the cause of the accident. The trial court sustained Ford's objection as to lack of foundation and noted that nothing in the record reflected that Kroeger had struck a curb. Later in the trial, Kroeger recalled Dr. Weins in an attempt to lay the proper foundation for Dr. Weins' opinion. During that direct examination, Dr. Weins stated that he had relied on an assortment of testimony and exhibits in arriving at his conclusion. When asked if he could correlate the facts of the accident to the TLA defect, Dr. Weins stated, Yes, I believe I can. However, Dr. Weins continued to assert his opinion based on the theory that the Kroeger vehicle struck a curb at the time that the TLA defect manifested itself. As support for that factual conclusion, Dr. Weins cited the testimony of eyewitness Bridges. The flaw in the foundation for Dr. Weins' opinion is that when Kroeger's testimony is compared with Bridges' eyewitness account, Dr. Weins' TLA-curb theory becomes inapplicable to the instant case. Kroeger testified that the steering wheel jumped out of her hands as she began to execute a lane change to the left. Nothing in the record supports an inference that Kroeger struck the curb on her right prior to beginning the move to the left lane. In fact, Kroeger testified that she had full control of her vehicle when she began to move toward the left lane. As the vehicle entered the left lane, the steering wheel began to move back and forth uncontrollably. Bridges testified that he saw the Kroeger vehicle move from the road onto the curb in the right lane. That move to the right, given the facts presented by the record in the instant case, occurred after Kroeger had already lost control of the vehicle. The record does not support a theory based on the premise that the TLA effect coincided with Kroeger's vehicle striking the curb. According to Dr. Weins' testimony, the TLA defect would have caused Kroeger to oversteer to the left (since she was moving the vehicle in that direction), not to the right. Oversteering to the left would clearly not cause a vehicle to jump onto the curb bordering the right-hand lane. The only reasonable reading of the record reveals that Kroeger had already lost control of the vehicle when it ran onto the curb. A trial court's ruling in receiving or excluding an expert's testimony which is otherwise relevant will be reversed only when there has been an abuse of discretion. McDonald v. Miller, 246 Neb. 144, 518 N.W.2d 80 (1994). The soundness of a trial court's decision regarding the admissibility of expert testimony depends upon the qualifications of the witness, the nature of the issue on which the opinion is sought, the foundation laid, and the particular facts of the case. Coppi v. West Am. Ins. Co., ante p. 1, 524 N.W.2d 804 (1994). Expert testimony should not be received if it appears that the witness is not in possession of such facts as will enable him to express a reasonably accurate conclusion, and where the opinion is based on facts shown not to be true, the opinion lacks probative value. Latek v. K Mart Corp., 224 Neb. 807, 401 N.W.2d 503 (1987); Clearwater Corp. v. City of Lincoln, 202 Neb. 796, 277 N.W.2d 236 (1979). Since there was no basis in fact to support Dr. Weins' opinion, the trial court properly refused to accept it. See Green v. Jerome-Duncan Ford, 195 Mich. App. 493, 491 N.W.2d 243 (1992). See, also, Priest v. McConnell, 219 Neb. 328, 363 N.W.2d 173 (1985).