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In re Canavan8/17/2000
based on, inter alia, personal observations and clinical experience would be admissible without application of the Lanigan analysis. We noted that the Federal courts that had considered this question had taken the view that such testimony would be subject to scrutiny regarding reliability pursuant to the Daubert decision. Id. at 15. Since the Vassallo case, the United States Supreme Court addressed this question in Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999). In the Kumho Tire case, the Court considered the contention that an engineer's testimony regarding the cause of a tire explosion should be admissible simply because it was based on the observations of an experienced engineer who specialized in tire analysis. Id. at 145. The Court in the Kumho Tire case held that the engineer's observations were subject to a Daubert analysis as the question before the judge was whether the expert's specific observations were sufficiently reliable to support the expert's ultimate conclusion regarding the cause of the explosion. Id. at 157.
We agree with this conclusion. There is no logical reason why conclusions based on personal observations or clinical experience should not be subject to the Lanigan analysis. "That a person qualifies as an expert does not endow his testimony with magic qualities." Boston Gas Co. v. Assessors of Boston, 334 Mass. 549, 579 (1956). Observation informed by experience is but one scientific technique that is no less susceptible to Lanigan analysis than other types of scientific methodology. The gatekeeping function pursuant to Lanigan is the same regardless of the nature of the methodology used: to determine whether "the process or theory underlying a scientific expert's opinion lacks reliability [such] that opinion should not reach the trier of fact." Commonwealth v. Lanigan, 419 Mass. 15, 26 (1994). Of course, even though personal observations are not excepted from Lanigan analysis, in many cases personal observation will be a reliable methodology to justify an expert's conclusion. If the proponent can show that the method of personal observation is either generally accepted by the relevant scientific community or otherwise reliable to support a scientific conclusion relevant to the case, such expert testimony is admissible. See Commonwealth v. Sands, 424 Mass. 184, 185-186 (1997).
The Appeals Court held alternatively that the judge implicitly conducted a Lanigan analysis and properly admitted Dr. LaCava's testimony that the employee suffered from MCS. Canavan's Case, supra at 300-301. The court pointed to the judge's findings that the diagnostic tests performed by Dr. LaCava were "generally accepted in the community of doctors who understand toxicity," id. at 300, and that Dr. LaCava had knowledge, training, and experience and conducted diagnostic and laboratory tests on the employee to support its conclusion that Dr. LaCava's MCS diagnosis was admissible. Id. at 301.
In his deposition testimony, Dr. LaCava stated that the tests he performed were accepted by doctors familiar with environmental toxicity to determine whether the employee had been poisoned by chemical exposure. However, Dr. LaCava also testified that not every person who suffers chemical exposure poisoning suffers from MCS. The tests that Dr. LaCava testified were generally accepted show that the employee had suffered chemical exposure but do not show that she suffers from MCS. There is no evidence in the record to show that Dr. LaCava used a reliable methodology to transform his general finding of chemical exposure to his more specific diagnosis of MCS.
Dr. LaCava refers to "the literature" as confirming the existence of MCS and asserts that based on the examination and tests he
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