holding that, in determining reliability, trial court should first look at whether precedent justifies recognition or rejection of “scientific theory or technique” advanced by expert; in absence of precedent, trial court must look at indices of reliability, including expert’s use of established techniques, expert’s professional background in field, use of visual aids before jury, and independent research conducted by expert”
How later courts described this case
- holding that, in determining reliability, trial court should first look at whether precedent justifies recognition or rejection of “scientific theory or technique” advanced by expert; in absence of precedent, trial court must look at indices of reliability, including expert’s use of established techniques, expert’s professional background in field, use of visual aids before jury, and independent research conducted by expert”
- stating further: “[A] party may use a [pre-trial] hearing to exclude an opponent’s expert testimony on an essential element of the cause of action. With no other means of proving that element of the claim, the non-moving party would inevitably perish in the ensuing motion for summary judgment.” Id. at 468, 597 S.E.2d at 692.
- holding that once an expert has passed Rule 702’s threshold of admissibility, “lingering questions or controversy concerning the quality of the expert’s conclusions go to the weight of the testimony rather than its admissibility”
- holding that once a court determines scientific area of qualified expert is reliable, then remaining issues concerning quality of conclusions go to the weight of the evidence rather than admissibility
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Justice PARKER
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the majority’s holding that this Court has not adopted the federal test for admissibility of expert testimony enunciated in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 , 125 L. Ed. 2d 469 (1993), and in the decision not to adopt the Daubert factors as the test for determining admissibility of expert testimony under Rule 702 of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence but to continue to adhere to the test enunciated in our prior case law.
However, I am constrained to dissent respectfully from the holding of the majority reversing the opinion of the Court of Appeals and vacating the trial court’s order allowing defendant’s motion to exclude testimony of plaintiff’s experts and the trial court’s order allowing defendants’ omnibus motion for summary judgment. In my view plaintiff’s experts’ testimony failed to satisfy the first prong of the three-part analysis set forth in the majority opinion based on this Court’s decision in State v. Goode, 341 N.C. 513 , 461 S.E.2d 631 (1995), namely, whether “the expert’s proffered method of proof [is] sufficiently reliable as an area for expert testimony.” As revealed in the careful analysis of the evidence in the trial court’s findings, none of plaintiff’s expert witnesses had done independent research or used established techniques to substantiate their respective proffered hypotheses as to (i) how the injury occurred, and (ii) whether the injury would have been prevented had plaintiff’s helmet had a rigid mouth guard rather than a flexible one. See State v. Pennington, 327 N.C. 89, 98 , 393 S.E.2d 847, 852-53 (1990) (stating nonexclusive indices of reliability).
*473 The trial court relied on both Daubert and Pennington in exercising its discretion to exclude the experts’ testimony as to causation. Given this Court’s jurisprudence governing the admissibility of expert testimony, the trial court’s use of the Daubert factors does not in my opinion render the trial court’s ruling fatally defective. See Shore v. Brown, 324 N.C. 427, 428 , 378 S.E.2d 778, 779 (1989) (stating that “[i]f the correct result has been reached, the judgment will not be disturbed even though the trial court may not have assigned the correct reason for the judgment entered”).
I would also vote to affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision upholding the trial court’s summary judgment for defendants on plaintiff’s section 99B-6 and unfair and deceptive practices claims.