Barnes v. Connecticut Podiatry Group, P.C.

Excerpt

The plaintiff K sought to recover damages from the defendants for medical malpractice in connection with the alleged failure of the defendant D, a podiatrist, to rule out the possibility of impaired blood flow to K's feet and to refer K to a vascular specialist, resulting, inter alia, in the partial amputations of K's feet. K filed an expert witness disclosure identifying G as an expert on the standard of care and causation, and later filed an amended expert witness disclosure. The defendants filed a motion to preclude the amended expert witness disclosure, which the court denied without prejudice, but also ordered, on January 13, 2016, that K was precluded from disclosing additional experts. After the court denied K's motion for reargument and reconsideration of that order, K filed a motion to modify the court's scheduling order dated January 19, 2016, and filed an expert witness disclosure identifying R as an additional expert. The court sustained the defendants' objections thereto and granted their motion to preclude R's testimony, stating that it was adher- ing to its January 13, 2016 order. The court subsequently precluded G from offering expert testimony and rendered summary judgment in favor of the defendants, from which K appealed to this court. Thereafter, S, the administratrix of K's estate, was substituted as the plaintiff. Held: 1. The trial court did not err in ordering that K could not disclose addi- tional experts: a. S could not prevail on her claim that the trial court's January 13, 2016 order constituted a sanction of preclusion subject to the applicable rule of practice (§ 13-4 [h]), which establishes procedures for the disclosures and depositions of experts in civil matters: the order was a case manage- ment decision that the court had the inherent authority to enter, as the court had expressed concern during argument on January 13, 2016, concerning a representation made by K's counsel that he might seek to disclose additional experts, because at