Opinion ID: 2499159
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Discovery and Expert Witnesses

Text: ¶ 5 The parties encountered difficulties in preparing for trial. The trial was continued to March 17, 2008, on Dr. Lauter's motion, and again to September 22, 2008 on a joint motion of all parties. The parties agreed that they needed more time to complete discovery. As a result of a pretrial conference in September 2008, the trial was continued again to January 12, 2009. Neither the Teters nor Dr. Deck complied completely with discovery deadlines and the trial court granted motions to compel by both sides. ¶ 6 The Teters initially retained Dr. William Duncan as their urologist-expert. They submitted a declaration from Dr. Duncan that detailed his opinions that (1) Dr. Deck breached the standard of care at several points during the course of the laparoscopic procedure; (2) Dr. Deck's breaches caused Teter's injuries; [2] and (3) Dr. Deck failed to adequately inform Teter of the risks involved in performing a laparoscopic procedure, supporting a lack of informed consent claim against Dr. Deck. ¶ 7 Dr. Deck deposed Dr. Duncan in January 2008. In late January 2008, the Teters notified Dr. Deck that Dr. Duncan might not be available for the March 2008 trial date, due to his impending back surgery. However, the February 2008 stipulated continuance obviated the need to replace Dr. Duncan. In August, the Teters learned that Dr. Duncan had fallen and ruptured his spleen, making him unavailable for the scheduled September trial date. Due to the imminence of the trial, the Teters requested the court's permission to replace Dr. Duncan. The Teters timely disclosed their replacement urologist-expert. Dr. Robert Golden, on November 12, 2008. ¶ 8 To the Teters' surprise, Dr. Golden withdrew shortly thereafter, based solely on his discovery of a professional conflict, in the form of a long standing personal and professional relationship with one of Dr. Deck's partners, precluding his testimony as the Teters' expert. Both the Teters and Dr. Golden himself immediately informed Dr. Deck's counsel of Golden's withdrawal. More than one month before the January 2009 trial date, the Teters notified Dr. Deck that they had retained Dr. Thomas Fairchild to replace Dr. Golden and that Dr. Fairchild would testify to the liability and causation issues previously identified. The Teters offered several dates for Dr. Deck to take Dr. Fairchild's deposition. Although Dr. Deck tentatively agreed to one of those dates, he later refused all of the proposed dates. Instead, Dr. Deck moved to strike Dr. Fairchild on December 29, 2008. ¶ 9 On the first day of trial, Judge Christopher Washington granted the motion to strike Dr. Fairchild as the Teters' expert witness. [3] Before then, the case had been reassigned from Judge Washington to Judge Steven González. [4]