Court Opinion

ID: 9564657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:05:04.217843+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:36.225907
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice Mitchell
dissenting in part and concurring in part.
I believe that Galloway v. Lawrence, 266 N.C. 245, 145 S.E.2d 861 (1966), the precedent relied upon by the majority in this case, reached the correct result. With regard to the issue of whether it was error for the trial court to qualify the defendant-doctor as an expert medical witness in the presence of the jury, however, I respectfully suggest that Galloway reached an erroneous conclusion of law and *535then erroneously applied that conclusion to the specific facts presented by that case.
In Galloway, the primary question of fact for the jury was whether the defendant-doctor had gone to the hospital to attend to his child-patient in a timely fashion. The defendant testified that he had, but the charge nurse at the hospital testified that she had not seen him in the hospital at the time in question. In the presence of the jury, the trial court stated: “Well, of course, now, the evidence with reference to the doctor going to the hospital is that he went there.. .. There is no evidence that he did not go there . . . .” Id. at 249, 145 S.E.2d at 865. Additionally, in Galloway,
defendant testified as a witness in his own behalf. His counsel tendered him “as a medical expert.” Plaintiffs’ counsel stated that he did not wish to ask the defendant any questions; that is, he did not wish to question the defendant’s qualifications to express opinions as an expert witness. The court, in the presence of the jury, said: “Let the record show that the Court finds as a fact that [defendant] is a medical expert, to wit: an expert physician in surgery.”
Id. at 250, 145 S.E.2d at 865-66. This Court awarded plaintiffs a new trial on the ground that both of the above-quoted statements by the trial court
dealt with the very questions which the jury was called upon to decide and were clearly prejudicial to the plaintiffs. The professional ability and skill of the defendant and whether or not he visited his patient following the telephone call from the nurses are questions for the jury, not for this Court or for the judge presiding at the trial.
Id. at 251, 145 S.E.2d at 866.
I believe that the Court was incorrect in stating in Galloway that, on the facts of that case, the “professional ability and skill of the defendant” was a question which the jury was called upon to decide. The plaintiffs in Galloway raised no issue in their pleadings or at trial with regard to the defendant’s professional qualifications. The only issue presented by the plaintiffs and before the jury in Galloway was whether the defendant exercised reasonable diligence in the application of his professional knowledge and skill to the particular patient’s care. This Court’s conclusion and holding, to the extent it was based on this reasoning, was erroneous. For this reason, I believe that the *536Court misapplied the law it announced in Galloway to the facts of that case. However, the Court reached the correct result in awarding the plaintiffs a new trial in Galloway due to the trial court’s clearly erroneous expression of its opinion with regard to whether the doctor had gone to the hospital and applied his knowledge and skills on behalf of his patient, the very issue the jury was to decide.
Further, I disagree with the conclusion of law in Galloway that a trial court’s ruling in the presence of the jury allowing a witness to testify as an expert witness will affect a jury in reaching its decision as to his professional qualifications. More to the point, I think this is particularly unlikely in a case such as the one facing us here, where almost all of the witnesses were declared to be medical experts by the trial court in the presence of the jury. First, there is something less than completely candid about requiring a trial court to accept a defendant as an expert witness and allow him to give testimony as an expert but then conceal this fact from the jury. This is particularly troubling in a case such as the present one in which the jury has been informed that the trial court has declared all of the other witnesses to be experts, and they are testifying as such. More importantly, I believe that the rule applied by the majority, at least on the facts of this case, is fundamentally unfair and may deny defendant due process and equal protection of law under the United States Constitution and under the Law of the Land Clause of the North Carolina Constitution. Accordingly, I dissent from the decision of the majority of this Court. I would affirm the decision of the majority in the Court of Appeals on this issue, which held that the trial court did not err in this regard.
Recognizing, however, that the rule announced and applied by the majority today will govern future cases, I suggest one possible practical solution to avoid the constitutional problem I see as possibly arising from the opinion of the majority. If, as the majority appears to believe, the act of the trial court in declaring a witness an expert witness has such a profound effect upon jurors, it seems fundamentally unfair to allow one party to enjoy the full effects of such a powerful statement with regard to each of its witnesses, while depriving the other party of a similar declaration by the trial court. Perhaps the fairest and best course for trial courts in light of the holding of the majority would be one by which the trial courts made their findings and rulings as to all expert witnesses in the absence of the jury. The witnesses could still state their qualifications before the jury and give expert testimony, but the jury would not be told that any *537of them were found by the court to be experts. In short, it seems to me that the only fundamentally fair procedure would be to apply the same rule to experts for both parties. The sauce to be used on the goose should also be used on the gander.
I concur only in that part of the decision of the majority concluding that plaintiffs appeal was timely filed and affirming the Court of Appeals on this issue.
Justice Orr joins in this dissenting and concurring opinion.