Lisa Tornabene v. City of Blackfoot

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Idaho denied Lisa Tornabene’s renewed motion in limine and motion for reconsideration concerning vocational expert DeLyn Porter’s opinion about available jobs. The court held that Porter disclosed the facts or data underlying his opinion by including the job-posting text in his expert report, and that the more specific expert-disclosure provision of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B)(ii) applied. The court limited Porter’s trial testimony to information contained in his report and permitted related testimony by Keith Pinkerton.

Holdings

1. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B)(ii), the more specific provision governing expert disclosures, controls over the generalized initial-disclosure requirement in Rule 26(a)(1)(A)(ii) for facts or data considered by an expert witness.
2. The expert's inclusion of the text and identifying information for the job postings in his report satisfied the disclosure requirement in this case; separate production of copies of the postings was not required.
3. The Court denied Tornabene's renewed motion in limine and motion for reconsideration.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(1)(A)(ii), rather than the more specific expert-disclosure provision in Rule 26(a)(2)(B)(ii), required separate disclosure of the job postings considered by the vocational expert.
2. Whether including the text and identifying information for the job postings in the expert report satisfied Rule 26(a)(2)(B)(ii)'s requirement to disclose the facts or data considered by the expert.
3. Whether the Court should reconsider its prior ruling allowing limited testimony concerning the job openings.

Disposition

other