Court Opinion

ID: 9739291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:11:45.986361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:11.372866
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in result in part.
I fully concur with respect to Issues I, II and IV. As to Issue III, I concur in result and agree that it was appropriate to admit into evidence the testimony of Sergeant Malone concerning blood spatter analysis. I disagree, however, with the majority's statement of the test by which admissibility of expert testimony is determined.
The majority quotes from Wissman v. State (1989) Ind., 540 N.E.2d 1209, 1213 as follows:
"Expert testimony is inappropriate and may be excluded when it concerns matters within the common knowledge and experience of ordinary persons and which the jury may determine as well as the expert. Grimes v. State (1983), Ind., 450 N.E.2d 512. However, even if evidence is not beyond the knowledge and expertise of the average juror, the expert may *560nevertheless testify concerning his special knowledge of the subject. Summers v. State (1986), Ind.App. 495 N.E.2d 799."
It is clear, however, that the last sentence quoted is dictum because in Wissman the opinion held that the testimony in question "[ellearly ... was beyond the common knowledge and experience of the average lay person." 540 N.E.2d at 1213.
In any event, the dictum quoted appears to misinterpret the holding of Summers v. State (1986) 1st Dist.Ind.App., 495 N.E.2d 799. The Summers case created a test for admissibility of expert testimony different from the previously existing traditional test. The Summers standard is not a part of the test as enunciated in Grimes v. State (1983) Ind., 450 N.E.2d 512, which requires that the testimony must concern matters outside the common knowledge and experience of ordinary persons.
That the Summers test was intended to be different from and to replace the former test is made clear from Cox v. American Aggregates Corp. (1991) ist Dist.Ind.App., 580 N.E.2d 679 at 686, written by Chief Judge Ratliff, who authored Summers:
"It has been said previously, that to be admissible the subject matter of an expert's testimony must be beyond the understanding of laymen. [Citations omitted.] However, in Summers, we rejected this traditional test and said that the proper and modern test is whether the expert has some special knowledge which would assist the trier of fact in understanding the evidence or deciding a factual issue."
In any event, as noted by the majority here, the questioned testimony meets the traditional test as well as the new Summers test. It is therefore not essential that we resort to the Summers test for admissibility. For this reason and in this light, I concur in the affirmance of the judgment.