Expert Issues In Workplace Class Action Litigation

In Cason-Merenda, et al. v. Detroit Medical Center, Case No. 06-CV-15601, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5707 (E.D. Mich. Apr. 22, 2013), Judge Rosen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held that the expert report provided by the plaintiff Registered Nurses (“RNs”) satisfied the Daubert admissibility requirements. 

In so ruling in this workplace antirust class action, Judge Rosen applied a fairly lenient interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision in Daubert v. Merrell Down Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), describing its gatekeeping role as limited and noting that the rejection of expert testimony is the exception rather than the rule. Cason-Merenda, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5707, at *19-20. But what will be interesting is how Judge Rosen will deal with this expert testimony in deciding the pending motion for class certification.  In his decision Judge Rosen repeatedly refused to resolve issues involving a “battle of the experts,” holding that such determinations were for the trier-of-fact. Id., at *28-29, 38, 40-41, 46. Given recent Supreme Court precedent, it remains to be seen if the Court can take that position in deciding the motion for class certification.

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