Opinion ID: 2059709
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: expert testimony excluded

Text: Defendants claim that the trial court improperly and prejudicially excluded certain testimony of their expert witness, Dr. Leonard Bull. Dr. Bull was called by defendants and qualified as an expert in ruminant nutrition. The doctor's testimony was to be relevant to defendants' counterclaim for breach of warranty by plaintiffs in the sale of a Harvestore silo. The silo was alleged to be defective, causing spoilage of the haylage that was stored in it. Plaintiffs objected to a hypothetical question as to the probable cause of the black color of the haylage claimed to be spoiled. They complained that the hypothetical was based on facts not in evidence and that the issue was not material to the case. The court sustained the objection, adding that it was not going to permit the witness to give an opinion on what caused the silage to be black unless he actually saw the silage. Later, the court permitted defendants' attorney to ask the witness what caused the silage to become black. The witness gave his opinion that it was due to exposure to air, and that the exposure could have been due to the silo not being covered, the entrapment of air in the silo in the process of storing the haylage or to leakage in the silo. Vermont Rules of Evidence permit an expert to give an opinion without personal knowledge of the facts so long as he is made aware of the facts before or during trial. V.R.E. 703. However, an expert's opinion may not be based on mere speculation. In re New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., 135 Vt. 527, 536, 382 A.2d 826, 833 (1977). Opinion based on speculation is irrelevant, and is not admissable. Id.; V.R.E. 401 and 402. In any event, even though the court was wrong in its reason for excluding the hypothetical question, the ruling was correct as to relevancy, there being no evidence in the case of a refilling of the silo in 1985; and the opinion evidence came in eventually anyway. There is no reversible error here.