Court Opinion

ID: 9746805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:39:02.065222+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:17.025776
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
Expert medical opinion is required if either the question of causality between the negligent act and the alleged injuries or of the permanency of injuries is medically complicated. Jones v. Miller, D.C.App., 290 A.2d 587 (1972). In D. C. Transit Systems, Inc. v. Simpkins, D.C.App., 367 A.2d 107 (1976), we recognized that where the defense offered the medical opinion of a qualified physician, a finding for the plaintiff based only on lay opinion was without evi-dentiary support. Nonetheless, the award of damages in Simpkins was affirmed because a physician’s report received into evidence by stipulation provided the requisite evidentiary support. Id. at 109.
As was so in Early v. Wagner, D.C.App., 391 A.2d 252 (1978), although I am in agreement with the majority on the applicable legal principles, I dissent from the result in this case. I do not quarrel with the majority’s holding that this was a “medically complicated case” in which expert testimony was required. Our difference is only on whether testimony given by appellee’s expert witness, Dr. Jackson, satisfied the requirement.
Dr. Jackson testified that continuing lum-bosacral strain could have been caused by the flexion injury which occurred when appellant’s bus collided with the bus in which appellee was seated, and that appellee’s injuries were of a permanent nature. During vigorous cross-examination Dr. Jackson was asked whether he was aware of other accidents in which appellee was involved. This cross-examination of appellee’s expert affected the weight to be given to his testimony but it did not negate as a matter of law his earlier statements on direct examination which I accept as supplying the necessary evidentiary predicate for submitting the issue to the jury. In my judgment the jury verdict should not be disturbed because, based upon this record, it was not error for the trial judge to submit to the jury appellee’s claim for damages. Accordingly, I would affirm.