# Erschen v. Pennsylvania Independent Oil Co.

> Superior Court of Pennsylvania · October 27, 1978 · 259 Pa. Super. 474

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9650212

## Case

- **Full name:** Henry ERSCHEN and Rita Erschen, Appellants, v. PENNSYLVANIA INDEPENDENT OIL COMPANY, Defendant, and Charles P. Wieand, T/A Charles P. Wieand, Additional Defendant
- **Court:** Superior Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** October 27, 1978
- **Citations:** 259 Pa. Super. 474; 393 A.2d 924; 1978 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3904
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Spaeth
- **Judges:** Watkins, Jacobs, Hoffman, Cercone, Price, Van Voort Spaeth, Spaeth
- **Cited by:** 16 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9650212

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- finding fire marshal not qualified to testify on origin of gas explosion because he had no formal instruction or on-the-job training concerning that issue

## Opinion text

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 *479 pretension 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.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9650212. Public record. Not legal advice.