Alfa Consult SA v. TCI International, Inc.

Background

Alfa Consult SA sued TCI International, Inc. The case was scheduled for trial on January 8, 2024. Under the scheduling order, the deadline for dispositive motions and motions challenging expert evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was May 4, 2023; the deadline for motions in limine—motions asking the court to limit evidence at trial—was October 19, 2023.

On May 4, TCI moved to exclude the opinions, testimony, and report of Alfa’s expert, Haider Ala Hamoudi.

Court’s analysis

The court explained that a motion under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals asks the court to act as a gatekeeper for expert testimony under Rule 702 by ensuring that scientific or other expert evidence is relevant and reliable. The court’s analysis generally focuses on the expert’s principles and methods rather than merely on the expert’s conclusions.

TCI identified four grounds for excluding Hamoudi’s evidence. One ground asserted that his opinions were unreliable and improperly applied law to the facts, potentially telling the judge or jury which factual and legal conclusions to reach. The court found that TCI’s two vague references to reliability, including arguments that Hamoudi lacked a proper basis for three statements in his report, did not turn the motion into a narrower Daubert motion. Instead, the court concluded that the motion’s real focus was the relevance of Hamoudi’s evidence.

The court also stated that whether it would require the assistance of a foreign-law expert should be addressed at the final pretrial conference.

Disposition

The court found that TCI’s filing was an impermissibly early motion in limine rather than a Daubert motion and denied the motion as improper. The denial was without prejudice to TCI’s timely refiling of the motion as a motion in limine of five or fewer pages, as required by the court’s standing orders. Judge Beth Labson Freeman signed the order on June 20, 2023.