Court Opinion

ID: 9611742
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:59:53.644064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:16.509032
License: Public Domain

CONNOR, Justice
(dissenting in part).
I cannot agree that the exclusion of the offered expert testimony was reversible error.
To be sure, it might have been preferable to let the opinion into evidence and then allow counsel for appellee to cross-examine the witness about the bases of the opinion. If the expert’s knowledge of the factors supporting the hypothetical assumptions where shown to be faulty, this would go to the weight of the testimony. If sufficiently critical to the opinion testimony, the lack of knowledge about the precise alcoholic content of the drinks might even require the court to strike the opinion testimony. This, of course, is not what occurred here.
If the court had admitted the opinion testimony, I might well be for affirming its action. I see this case as one where the trial court’s discretion could be exercised either for or against admission of the offered testimony.
The consumption of alcoholic beverages is a common occurrence throughout Alaska. No doubt the size of drinks served in a given community tends to be standardized to some extent. Jurors, particularly in Alaska, may be assumed to have some familiarity with the average strength and the usual effect of drinks purchased across a bar. To require proof of the precise strength of the drink before information about drinking could be placed before the jury would be most unreasonable. It is more realistic, in a drinking culture such as ours, to permit “juroral notice” of these matters.
When an expert opinion about the effects of alcohol is offered, the problem of proof is different. The opinion is offered because, with its asserted basis in special knowledge or science, it may be of value to the jury. Lewis v. State, 469 P.2d 689, 694 (Alaska 1970). That is, it may shed greater light on the question under scrutiny than would the unaided lay knowledge possessed by jurors. For this reason it should rest on knowledge and factual bases more firm than only guesswork or surmise. This does not mean that each factor underlying an expert opinion must be established beyond scientific doubt. It is enough if the opinion is founded on data which would be considered reliable by persons knowledgeable in the field of expertise as to which the opinion is rendered. As we have said about the admission of experimental evidence, “Absolute certainty is not required if the experiment would be considered valid by persons skilled or knowledgeable in the field which the experiment concerns.” Love v. State, 457 P.2d 622 (Alaska 1969). The same considerations apply to expert opinion testimony.
If in this case the expert had indicated any familiarity with the average size drink served in the general community, or if such information had been placed in evidence by any other means, a proper foundation for the opinion testimony would, in my opinion, have been supplied. But, lacking this foundation, I do not believe it was an abuse of discretion for the judge to exclude the answer.
Nor can I agree with the majority that the burdens of production and persuasion should be shifted to the consumer of intoxicating liquor. The case cited in support of such a holding, Ferrell v. Baxter, 484 P.2d 250 (Alaska 1971), seems inapposite. Imbibing alcohol is not in itself a criminal offense. There has been no prima facie showing that appellee violated any statute or regulation so as to require him to show excuse or justification for his conduct.
Accordingly, I would hold that exclusion of the expert testimony was not reversible error.