Jennifer Chaisson v. Walmart Inc., d/b/a Sam's Club and Sam's East, Inc.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana granted defendants’ unopposed motion to exclude plaintiff’s proposed lifecare planning expert, Kasey Crawford. The court held that plaintiff failed to provide the expert report required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B) and did not show that the failure was substantially justified or harmless under Rule 37(c)(1).

Holdings

1. Because Crawford was a retained expert, plaintiff was required to provide a report complying with Rule 26(a)(2)(B). Providing only a curriculum vitae and a statement of proposed testimony did not satisfy that requirement.
2. Plaintiff's failure to comply with the expert-disclosure requirements was neither substantially justified nor shown to be harmless; therefore, Crawford was excluded from trial under Rule 37(c)(1) and the scheduling order.

Questions Presented

1. Whether plaintiff's proposed lifecare-planning expert should be excluded from trial for failure to provide the expert report required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B) and the court's scheduling order.
2. Whether plaintiff's disclosure failure was substantially justified or harmless under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(c)(1).

Disposition

other