Court Opinion

ID: 9856563
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:50:31.304397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:22.128609
License: Public Domain

BOYLE, Justice,
dissenting.
In my view, defendants had a duty to supplement their experts’ deposition responses prior to trial as required by Radmer v. Ford Motor Co., 120 Idaho 86, 813 P.2d 897 (1991). Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
I also respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that counsel for plaintiff waived a continuance during trial to take the deposition of defendant’s expert. In my view, the trial court was not excused from excluding undisclosed evidence of additional tests and analysis performed after the expert’s pretrial discovery deposition had been taken.
A review of the record clearly confirms that the trial court offered plaintiffs a recess to take further depositions of the defense expert. Although this was a reasonable proposal by the trial court, in light of its rejection by the surprised party it is not a sufficient remedy to overcome the prejudice to plaintiffs in this instant case. Perhaps more importantly, the majority’s approval of the trial court’s proposal to allow a deposition does not provide any meaningful guidance to the bench and trial bar in future cases. If any of the litigants is to bear the burden, responsibility or prejudice of failing to supplement discovery, it should be the offending party rather than the surprised party. In my view, our approval today of allowing a continuance during trial when a party fails to supplement its discovery responses will encourage eleventh hour undisclosed discovery rather than prevent it as is contemplated by the Rules of Civil Procedure.
To place a surprised party in the position of having to accept the alternative of bringing the trial to a halt, taking the delinquent expert’s deposition and then provide that information to the other experts and, finally, in all likelihood, take additional depositions in response all because of a party’s failure to supplement an expert’s opinion is an unacceptable and unjust remedy. Such a procedure can only work to the offending party’s advantage and should not be allowed by the trial court nor approved by us on appeal. In my view, the only fair method of preventing the problem of a party failing to supplement discovery is to exclude evidence of post-discovery testing by experts or other new evidence obtained after the close of discovery unless a timely supplement is made as contemplated by the Rules. Radmer v. Ford Motor Co., 120 Idaho 86, 813 P.2d 897 (1991). See I.R.C.P. 26(e)(4) which clearly provides:
(4) If a party fails to seasonably supplement his responses as required in this Rule 26(e), the trial court may exclude the testimony of witnesses or the admission of evidence not disclosed by a re*217quired supplementation of the responses of the party.
Rule 26 and all of its sub-parts are controlled by the provisions of Rule 1(a) which require that “[t]hese rules shall be liberally construed to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding.” In my view, none of these criteria have been satisfied by the process approved herein.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.
BISTLINE, J., concurs.