The case of Carmody v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 6:14-cv-830-Orl-37KRS, 2015 WL 5542534 (M.D. Fla. September 18, 2015) is not being decided in a vacuum. The plaintiff in that case claims uninsured motorist benefits from the defendant. After entering a Case Management and Scheduling Order which set out deadlines including for expert witness disclosure as is usual under such orders, the Court sanctioned the plaintiff "for his untimely and insufficient expert witness disclosures" including by limiting the testimony of one Dr. Masson, whom the plaintiff disclosed as a "treating physician," to "'opinions formed based on observations made during the course" of Dr. Masson's treatment of the plaintiff. Carmody v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 6:14-cv-830-Orl-37KRS, 2015 WL 5542534, *1 (M.D. Fla. September 18, 2015).
After taking Dr. Masson's deposition, the defendant filed a motion to exclude his opinion testimony on causation. Dr. Masson testified in his deposition that he relied on an MRI study done on a date he did not know when, and on "the history provided to him by Plaintiff." Dr. Masson further testified that he did not review the plaintiff's prior medical reports or the plaintiff's medical history, and that he did not talk to plaintiff's "prior doctors of therapists before making his causation opinion." Carmody v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 6:14-cv-830-Orl-37KRS, 2015 WL 5542534, *3 (M.D. Fla. September 18, 2015).
The Court observed that "Courts frequently exclude causation opinion testimony from expert witnesses who -- like Dr. Masson -- based their opinions on a plaintiff's account of the facts without consideration of other possible causes of an injury." Carmody v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 6:14-cv-830-Orl-37KRS, 2015 WL 5542534, *3 (M.D. Fla. September 18, 2015). The Court was aware too of Dr. Masson's testimony that "the injuries he found during his physical examination of Plaintiff were 'consistent with the story the patient gave [him].'" Carmody v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 6:14-cv-830-Orl-37KRS, 2015 WL 5542534, *3 n.3 (M.D. Fla. September 18, 2015).
Based on the law, "and a careful review of the record -- particularly Dr. Masson's deposition," the Court granted the defendant's motion in this insurance case.
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