Free Motion in Limine - District Court of Delaware - Delaware

Case 1:04-cv-00163-GMS

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Filed 08/22/2006

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE ) ) Civil Action No.: 04-0163 GMS ) ) ) JURY TRIAL DEMANDED ) )

DONALD M. DURKIN CONTRACTING, INC. Plaintiff, vs. CITY OF NEWARK et al.

CITY OF NEWARK DEFENDANTS' OPENING BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF MOTION IN LIMINE TO BAR ANY PARTY FROM CALLING CRAIG R. CALABRIA, Ph.D, P.E. TO TESTIFY TIGHE, COTTRELL & LOGAN, P.A. By: /s/ Paul Cottrell Paul Cottrell (Delaware I.D. No. 2391) Victoria K. Petrone (Delaware I.D. No. 4210) 704 N. King Street P.O. Box 1031 Wilmington, DE 19899 P: (302) 658-6400 F: (302) 658-9836 email: [email protected] Attorneys for Defendants City of Newark, Harold F. Godwin, John H. Farrell, IV, Jerry Clifton, Karl G. Kalbacher, David J. Athey, Frank J. Osborne, Jr., and Christina Rewa August 19, 2006

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TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF AUTHORITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii STATEMENT OF THE NATURE AND STAGE OF THE PROCEEDINGS . . . . . . . . 1 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 STATEMENT OF FACTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ARGUMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

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TABLE OF AUTHORITIES Case Page

Hambleton ex rel. Estate of Albanese v. Christina Care Health Services, 2002 WL 183851(Del. Super. Jan 31, 2002). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Guinn et al., v. Trala, et al., 2006 WL 1148475 (Del. Super. April 17, 2006) . . . . . . . . 2 Pinkett v. Brittingham, 567 A.2d 858 (Del. Supr. 1989) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Schmidt v. Hobbs, Del. Super. 1988 WL 31989 (March 17, 1988) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,2 Winchester v. Hertrich, 658 A.2d 1016 (Del. Super. Ct. 1995) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Other Authority Final Pretrial Order form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

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STATEMENT OF NATURE AND STAGE OF PROCEEDINGS Several parties have indicated their intent to call Craig R. Calabria, Ph.D, P.E. ("Calabria") at trial who was retained as the City of Newark's expert. SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT If the City of Newark ("Newark") does not call Calabria to testify at trial, other parties may not do so on the basis that it would breach Calabria's duty to Newark and because it is prohibited by this Court's rules on duplicative experts as the other parties have named their own expert witnesses. STATEMENT OF FACTS The City of Newark terminated its construction contract with Donald M. Durkin Contracting, Inc. ("Durkin") who later filed a Complaint against Newark and Individual Defendants for breach of contract, various tort claims and violation of civil rights. Prior to termination, Durkin's surety, Federal Insurance Company, retained Gregory Richardson, Ph.D., P.E. ("Richardson") as an expert. And months before that, Durkin retained Geosyntec Consultants ("Geosyntec") as an expert. Richardson and Geosyntec have been identified as expert trial witnesses for Federal and Durkin. After Durkin filed its Complaint, Newark retained Calabria. In addition to their own experts, Federal, Durkin and URS have identified Calabria as another of their expert witnesses for trial. ARGUMENT A party may not call an opposing party's expert witness, as this would be forcing the expert to commit a breach of duty of loyalty the expert owes to its employer. Schmidt v. Hobbs, -1-

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Del. Super. 1988 WL 31989 (March 17, 1988). The Delaware Supreme Court has only allowed a litigant to "poach" the opposing party's expert under certain limited circumstances, such as when the expert is no longer employed by the opposing party and subsequent cases have limited this holding to Independent Medical Examination ("IME") experts. Pinkett v. Brittingham, 567 A.2d 858 (Del. Supr. 1989), Guinn et al., v. Trala, et al., 2006 WL 1148475 (Del. Super. April 17, 2006). If Newark chooses not to call Calabria, he cannot be forced to testify for another party. (Pinkett, see also Winchester v. Hertrich, 658 A.2d 1016 (Del. Super. Ct. 1995), Hambleton ex rel. Estate of Albanese v. Christina Care Health Services, 2002 WL 183851(Del. Super. Jan 31, 2002). Further, Calabria would be a duplicative expert. As stated in the form Final Pretrial Order, "only one expert witness on each subject for each party will be permitted to testify absent good cause shown." Footnote 5 at Page 3. Each of the other parties in this case have already designated experts on the issues of constructability and reservoir safety, which are the only subjects upon which Calabria would testify. Durkin has identified Geosyntec and Federal has identified both Richardson and W. Allen Marr, Ph.D., P.E. URS has identied Ron Frobel, MSCE, P.E., Dov Leshchinsky, P.E. and others. Each party has their own expert witnesses, more than one in most cases, and testimony by Calabria would exceed this Court's rule regarding duplicative testimony. CONCLUSION WHEREFORE, Defendant City of Newark respecfully requests that this Court enter an Order denying and otherwise forbidding any party from calling Craig R. Calabria, Ph.D., P.E. as their expert witness.

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TIGHE, COTTRELL & LOGAN, P.A. By: /s/ Paul Cottrell Paul Cottrell (Delaware I.D. No. 2391) Victoria K. Petrone (Delaware I.D. No. 4210) 704 N. King Street, P.O. Box 1031 Wilmington, DE 19899 P: (302) 658-6400 Attorneys for City of Newark Defendants

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