Court Opinion

ID: 9650212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:27:02.895721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:18.983968
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge, concurring:
I agree that it was within the trial judge's discretion to sustain the objection to the trooper testifying as an expert. I regret, however, the majority's repetition of the test, that to qualify as an expert, "the witness must have a reasonable *479pretension to specialized knowledge." Majority opinion at 926. I stated what I regard to be the proper test in a concurring opinion in Ragan v. Steen, 229 Pa.Super. 515, 528, 331 A.2d 724, 736 (1974). A "pretension" is a statement of doubtful truth or value, and while I suppose it does no great harm to continue to say that someone may be an expert if he has a pretension to knowledge, it seems a pity; at any rate, it is of no help to the bench or bar, especially when McCormick and Wigmore have stated the test so much better.