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Agnew v. Shaw1/28/2005
scientific community. Donaldson, 199 Ill. 2d at 77; Frye, 293 F.2d at 1014.
Plaintiff's second argument on appeal is that she was denied a fair trial because the defendants' Frye objection was raised in a motion in limine and the trial court did not have adequate time to conduct a hearing prior to the commencement of Dr. Schapira's testimony. Essentially the plaintiff is arguing that the defendants' Frye objection should not have been brought in a motion in limine and that it was untimely. Motions in limine are addressed to the trial court's inherent power to admit or exclude evidence; generally, a reviewing court will not disturb the trial court's ruling on motions in limine absent an abuse of discretion, so long as the trial court exercises its discretion within the bounds of the law. Beehn v. Eppard, 321 Ill. App. 3d 677, 680-81 (2001), citing People v. Williams, 188 Ill. 2d 365, 369 (1999). An abuse of discretion occurs when the ruling is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, or when no reasonable person would take the same view (People v. Illgen, 145 Ill. 2d 353, 364 (1991); Diamond v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 881, 329 Ill. App. 3d 519, 526 (2002)), or if there is an application of impermissible legal criteria. Boatmen's National Bank of Belleville v. Martin, 155 Ill. 2d 305, 314 (1993). However, a reviewing court can sustain the decision of the trial court to admit or exclude evidence for any appropriate reason, regardless of whether the trial court relied on that reason or whether the trial court's reasoning was correct. See Leonardi, 168 Ill. 2d at 97; Government Employees Insurance Co. v. Buford, 338 Ill. App. 3d 448, 456 (2003).
First, the plaintiff asserts that the motion in limine was really a dispositive motion and relies on Silverstein v. Brander, 317 Ill. App. 3d 1000 (2000), and Peterson v. Randhava, 313 Ill. App. 3d 1 (2000), in support of her position. The facts in Silverstein and Peterson are distinguishable from the facts in the case at bar. In Silverstein, the defendant filed a motion in limine and sought to bar the plaintiff's expert's opinion testimony and, once the motion in limine was granted, the defendant made an oral motion for summary judgment which was granted after it was put in writing. Silverstein, 317 Ill. App. 3d at 1005. In Peterson, the trial court sua sponte converted the defendant's motion for sanctions into a motion for summary judgment. Peterson, 313 Ill. App. 3d at 9. The facts in Silverstein and Peterson are different from the facts in this case. In this case, both parties presented pretrial motions, including motions in limine, before the trial and each side had an opportunity to raise objections during a pretrial hearing. In addition, the trial court did not convert the defendants' motion in limine into a motion for summary judgment, did not bar all the plaintiff's expert's opinion testimony or enter a judgment for the defendants, as was done in Silverstein and Peterson. Here, the trial court only barred that portion of the plaintiff's expert's testimony regarding backward extrapolation. We are surprised that the plaintiff is now arguing that the trial court abused its discretion, thereby entitling her to a new trial, when Dr. Schapira was still allowed to testify regarding causation and, most importantly, that if the plaintiff's occult breast cancer had been diagnosed earlier, preventive measures could have been implemented sooner.
Second, with regards to the Frye objections being presented in a motion in limine, we find that this practice has not been held improper by this court. See Petre, 331 Ill. App. 3d at 945 (Frye evidentiary hearing conducted where motion in limine brought); People v. Taylor, 335 Ill. App. 3d
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