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Workman v. Crisco

The trial court did not err in allowing a defense witness who was not identified as an expert to give opinion testimony in the plaintiffs' medical malpractice action, as the witness investigated the facts and reached an opinion in his capacity as the hospital's radiation safety officer, not in anticipation of litigation or for trial.

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A jury found in favor of defendants Larry Van-Thomas Crisco, M. D. and Northside Cardiology, P. C., in a medical malpractice action brought by Harold and Patricia Workman, and the trial court entered judgment on the verdict. The Workmans appeal. They argue that the defendants did not comply with their obligation to notify the Workmans during discovery that an identified fact witness also would provide an expert opinion, and that, consequently, the trial court should have excluded the opinion testimony, postponed the trial to allow them to interview the witness, or declared a mistrial. The Georgia Civil Practice Act, however, did not require the defendants to identify the witness as an expert. Accordingly, we affirm.

In their lawsuit, the Workmans alleged that Mr. Workman was badly burned by exposure to a high dose of radiation during a cardiac catheterization and intervention procedure performed by Dr. Crisco on January 31, 2008, at Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta, Inc. Dr. Crisco was in practice with Northside Cardiology. The record does not contain the Workmans’ discovery requests to the defendants or the defendants’ responses, but the parties appear to agree that, in their discovery responses, the defendants identified Dr. Richard Sankey as a fact witness but not an expert witness. Dr. Sankey was a physicist in Saint Joseph’s Hospital’s radiation oncology department and the hospital’s radiation safety officer at the time of Mr. Workman’s procedure.

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