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Russell v. Call/D, LLC

August 5, 2020

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s grant of a Defendant’s Motion in Limine holding that the Plaintiff’s designated expert was not qualified to testify as to the source of the Plaintiff’s disease.  The Plaintiff brought an action against the owner of the apartment building where the Plaintiff was residing when he began to suffer the symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease, which he was diagnosed with in May 2011.  Plaintiff designated a causation expert in order to provide testimony as to “how Legionnaires’ disease is contracted in general and specifically how Plaintiff contracted it due to his exposure to fumes and smells at his apartment building.”  The Defendant filed a Motion in Limine arguing that the expert’s training and experience as a clinician in treating patients diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease did not render him qualified to pinpoint the source of the Plaintiff’s exposure to Legionella bacteria.  On appeal, the Court affirmed the lower court’s decision, noting that the expert had never been trained or “involved with the identification of the source of exposure” of Legionnaires’ disease. 

Russell v. Call/D, LLC, No. 13-CV-1177 (D.C. Apr. 15, 2015)