State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 12 May 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 2D02-1846.,2D02-1846. |
| Parties | STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Karen S. JOHNSON and Charles Johnson, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Tracy Raffles Gunn of Fowler White Boggs Banker P.A., Tampa, for Appellant.
Michael S. Finch, St. Petersburg, for Appellees.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company appeals from a final judgment entered after a jury verdict in favor of Karen Johnson, plaintiff below, on her uninsured motorist claim. State Farm argues that the trial court erred in admitting expert testimony that trauma from an automobile accident was the legal cause of Mrs. Johnson's fibromyalgia. We conclude that the expert testimony was properly admitted and therefore affirm.
In October 1996, Mrs. Johnson was rearended by an uninsured driver. After the accident, Mrs. Johnson developed progressively debilitating symptoms. She was ultimately diagnosed as having fibromyalgia, a fact that is not disputed by State Farm. However, State Farm does dispute Mrs. Johnson's contention that the accident was the legal cause of her condition.
Prior to trial, State Farm sought, under Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.Cir.1923), to exclude the expert testimony that linked Mrs. Johnson's fibromyalgia to the accident. In its motion, State Farm asserted that the experts "should be stricken under the Frye test as none of these experts' scientific opinions are generally accepted in the scientific community." At the hearing on the motion, the parties did not argue whether Frye was applicable. Instead, their arguments concerned whether the scientific community's failure to reach a generally accepted understanding of the physical mechanism that causes fibromyalgia requires the exclusion of expert opinion testimony that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, Mrs. Johnson's fibromyalgia resulted from the auto accident.
The parties agree that the cause (etiology) and the disease process (pathogenesis) of fibromyalgia are unknown to medical science. The parties also agree that while the etiology and pathogenesis are unknown, there is an established association between trauma and fibromyalgia. State Farm argues that because the medical cause is unknown, expert opinion testimony cannot be offered to prove that in this case the accident trauma was the legal cause of Mrs. Johnson's fibromyalgia. Mrs. Johnson argues on appeal that the doctors offered pure opinion testimony that is not subject to Frye. Therefore, the trial court's decision to admit the expert testimony was right, but for the wrong reason. Based on our de novo review of the Frye issue in this case, see Castillo v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., 854 So.2d 1264, 1268 (Fla.2003),
we agree.
U.S. Sugar Corp. v. Henson, 823 So.2d 104, 109 (Fla.2002) (citations omitted). In Henson, the supreme court reaffirmed that a Frye inquiry "must focus only on the general acceptance of the scientific principles and methodologies upon which an expert relies in rendering his or her opinion." 823 So.2d at 110. Here, the medical experts rendered their opinions based on...
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Anderson v. Akzo Nobel Coatings Inc., 82264–6.
...it is ‘pure opinion’ admissible without having to satisfy Frye.” Marsh, 977 So.2d at 549 (citing State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 880 So.2d 721, 723 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.2004)). 8. We note that counsel neglected to provide a specific citation to the record for this, instead referring ......
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Marsh v. Valyou
...We review Marsh v. Valyou, 917 So.2d 313 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005), which certified conflict with State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Johnson, 880 So.2d 721 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004). In Marsh, the Fifth District Court of Appeal held that Frye does apply and, applying that test, held the testi......
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Marsh v. Valyou
...is based solely on the expert's clinical experience, training and an examination of the plaintiff. See State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 880 So.2d 721 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004). In Johnson, which was issued after the trial court below rendered its decision, the Second District held that......
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Gelsthorpe v. Weinstein
...testimony concerning the cause of a medical condition is based on a novel scientific methodology. See State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 880 So.2d 721, 723 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (holding that Frye was not applicable to expert opinion concerning cause of fibromyalgia where "the medical ......
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The "pure opinion" exception to the Florida Frye standard.
...decisions are in the minority, however, and they apply a different test. Other than the Second District's recent decision in Johnson, 880 So. 2d at 721, however, I have found only one case applying a Fryetype test to testimony linking trauma to fibromyalgia that has found the testimony admi......
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Confronting experts whose opinions are neither supported nor directly contradicted by scientific literature.
...offer an expert opinion linking a plaintiff's fibromyalgia with an automobile accident. The Second District, in State Farm v. Johnson, 880 So. 2d 721 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004), held that a medical expert's opinion linking fibromyalgia and an automobile accident was admissible as pure opinion if it......
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Challenging expert witness testimony in Florida products liability cases under Frye.
...Id. Approximately one year prior to Marsh, the Second District took a contrary position in State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 880 So. 2d 721 (Fla. 2d D.C.A. 2004) (admitting expert witness testimony that plaintiff 's fibromyalgia was caused by an automobile accident based on differe......