Court Opinion

ID: 9648050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:00:30.337884+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:55.331842
License: Public Domain

SAYLOR, Justice,
dissenting.
The first issue on which appeal was allowed is whether a statement in the defense expert’s written report concerning *479the time of the fatal injury constituted a prior inconsistent statement pursuant to Commonwealth v. Brady. Because I do not believe that the evidentiary rule enunciated in Brady was intended to or should apply to opinion evidence, I respectfully dissent.
The evidence at issue is a report of the defense expert prepared in anticipation of trial. In his testimony at trial, the expert expressed an opinion as to the time of the child victim’s fatal injury that was contrary to the opinion he rendered in his report. Rather than probing this critical discrepancy through examination, defendant’s counsel permitted his own expert to leave the witness stand without an explanation.1 Following the direct examination of the expert, the Commonwealth, understandably, did not seek to contravene the portion of his testimony which was consistent with that of its own expert. The expert report was moved into evidence, together with 58 other exhibits at the close of trial. The next day, the Commonwealth lodged its objection to argument connected with the substance of the report.
Based upon Brady, the majority holds that the Commonwealth’s objection should have been denied. In Brady, this Court held that prior inconsistent statements that can be considered highly reliable may be admitted at trial as substantive evidence. Subsequently, in Commonwealth v. Lively, the Court set forth the circumstances under which a statement may be considered highly reliable for purposes of the Brady rule.
These cases, however, should not be read for the proposition that any and all evidence offered under the rubric of a prior inconsistent statement should be admissible for its substance. Where, as here, a defense expert has expressed an opinion in court and before the fact finder, the party offering such opinion should not be permitted to present to the jury as *480probative evidence contradictory portions of a prior report from the same expert.
Both Brady and Lively involved the admissibility of statements of fact rather than opinion.2 Courts have long recognized the significant, qualitative differences between testimony as to facts and expressions of opinion. For example, in Ray v. City of Philadelphia, 344 Pa. 439, 25 A.2d 145 (1942), this Court stated:
An opinion is only that: it creates no fact. It is what someone thinks about something, and the thought may be precisely accurate or totally inaccurate, and yet represent the absolutely honest conviction of the person who expresses it. Because of this, opinion evidence is generally considered of low grade, and not entitled to much weight against testimony of positive facts. There is a great difference between factual and opinion testimony. In the one the witness testifies to the fact and certifies that what he says of it is true. In the other, he only testifies to his opinion that such a thing is true, and certifies only to the integrity of his belief. He says he believes his opinion to be correct, but he does not warrant it to be true, and does not pretend that he cannot be mistaken.
Id. at 441-42, 25 A.2d at 146; see also Commonwealth v. Jordan, 407 Pa. 575, 583, 181 A.2d 310, 315 (1962). Because of the special nature of expert opinion evidence, a party is prohibited from offering absolutely conflicting expert testimony. See Commonwealth v. Gonzales, 463 Pa. 597, 601-602, 345 A.2d 691, 693 (1975). Such prohibition is based upon the *481sound principle that a jury should not be required to guess between contradictory expert evidence offered by the same party, much less the same witness. See id. The fact that the inconsistent opinion is characterized as a prior inconsistent statement does not diminish this concern.
Additionally, the admissibility of expert opinion evidence is subject to foundational predicates. For example, a factual basis must be laid for the opinion, see Commonwealth v. Rounds, 518 Pa. 204, 209, 542 A.2d 997, 999 (1988), and the opinion must be expressed with an adequate degree of certainty. See Commonwealth v. Edmiston, 585 Pa. 210, 222-23, 634 A.2d 1078, 1084 (1993). To allow an extrajudicial inconsistent expert report to be admitted under Brady would essentially excuse the proponent from satisfying such requisites.
In this case, apparently as a matter of strategy, defense counsel chose not to explore before the jury the inconsistency between his expert’s trial testimony and pre-trial report when such inconsistency arose during the testimony. The defense having foregone its opportunity in this regard, the trial court should not be required to put before the jury a prior inconsistent expert report that is not the type of fact-based statement contemplated by Brady and that is not grounded in the testimony heard. Indeed, to allow two contradictory opinions, offered by the same expert, to go to the jury without explanation would inject confusion into the jury’s deliberations and require the jury to impermissibly speculate as to a critical fact.
Finally, the majority finds that the Commonwealth waived (and indeed expressly conceded) the issue of whether the defense expert’s report constituted a prior inconsistent statement for purposes of the evidentiary rule announced in Brady. Such issue, however, was squarely implicated by the decision of the Superior Court in this case, which vacated Appellee’s judgment of sentence based upon its conclusion that the report should have been admitted pursuant to Brady ; in fact, this issue was the first issue expressly framed in the grant of allocatur. Moreover, it is axiomatic that an appellate court may sustain a correct judgment based upon any valid reason *482that is supported by the record. For these reasons, I believe that the issue is properly before us, and I do not view the Commonwealth’s erroneous concession as binding upon this Court for decisional purposes.
In my view, the trial judge made sound evidentiary rulings, the jury considered all admissible evidence presented by the parties, and an entirely proper verdict obtained. Thus, I would reverse the order of the Superior Court and reinstate the judgment of sentence.
NEWMAN, J., joins this dissenting opinion.

. Certainly, under these circumstances defense counsel could have, if necessary, declared surprise and sought leave to treat the expert as a hostile witness subject to cross-examination, which the trial court most assuredly would have permitted given the inconsistency. See Commonwealth v. London, 461 Pa. 566, 574, 337 A.2d 549, 553 (1975).

. Indeed, this Court has applied the Brady rule only in circumstances involving prior inconsistent statements of fact. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Wilson, 550 Pa. 518, 707 A.2d 1114 (1998) (disallowing use of officer's notes of prior statements made by minor victims); Commonwealth v. Halsted, 542 Pa. 318, 666 A.2d 655 (1995) (statements of minor witness); Commonwealth v. Simmons, 541 Pa. 211, 662 A.2d 621 (1995) (earlier report of a rape victim), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1128, 116 S.Ct. 945, 133 L.Ed.2d 870 (1996); Commonwealth v. Howard, 538 Pa. 86, 645 A.2d 1300 (1994) (eyewitness statements); Commonwealth v. Ragan, 538 Pa. 2, 645 A.2d 811 (1994) (eyewitness statement); Lively, 530 Pa. at 464, 610 A.2d at 7 (witness statement); and Commonwealth v. Burgos, 530 Pa. 473, 610 A.2d 11 (1992) (statements of a minor witness).