Torts, Personal Injury and Commercial Truck Accidents

36-2-1575 Cokerline v. Clark, App. Div. (Simonelli, J.A.D.) (28 pp.)

One of the many issues that is of import to plaintiffs in this case is the fact that the judge precluded the plaintiff’s expert from testifying on the theory of causation regarding defendant’s UPS truck pushing a car into decedent in a manner that caused him to fall from an overpass. The trial judge made a mistake when it barred plaintiff’s expert’s supplemental report as an inadmissible net opinion.  The appellate court found there was enough evidence for an expert to rely upon that decedent was in front of the car when the UPS truck allegedly struck it, even though some of the testimony by a witness did not place him there. The judge made a mistake when he directed a verdict in defendants’ favor prior to the new trial and dismissed the complaint. The appellate panel reverses the judge’s grant of involuntary dismissal and bar of the expert’s supplemental report.   The factual records is everything in these cases!!