Vanderberg v. Petco Animal Supplies Stores, No. 17-2580 (8th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment for Petco in a negligence and premises liability action filed by plaintiff against the company. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding plaintiff's expert evidence notwithstanding that Petco did not attempt to meet and confer with him before seeking sanctions. The court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the statements of plaintiff's treating physician to show causation. In this case, plaintiff failed to make any timely expert witness disclosures to Petco and never provided a summary of his treating physicians' expected testimony.
Court Description: Grasz, Author, with Gruender and Erickson, Circuit Judges. Civil Case - diversity. The district court's exclusion of undisclosed expert opinions under Fed.R.Civ. P. 37(c)(1) for failure to comply with Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(a)(2)(A) was not an abuse of discretion, as the failure to disclose was neither substantially justified nor harmless. Reliance on medical records and treating physician's operative notes did not qualify as expert witness disclosure to establish causation and the district court did not err in granting summary judgment. Judge Erickson dissents. [ October 03, 2018
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