You Used Daubert at Trial but Now it’s Frye? Here’s What the Appellate Court Might Do. (UPDATED–IT’S DAUBERT AGAIN!)

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***AUTHOR’S NOTE:  We published this article on May 20, 2019.  On May 23, 2019, the Florida Supreme Court did a completely unexpected about-face and adopted Daubert, receding from its prior opinions rejecting Daubert and rejecting the legislature’s amendment of section 90.702.  You can read the full opinion here: https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/content/download/525509/5838164/file/sc19-107.pdf

We’ll follow up with an updated post once we see how the districts change their response to pending appeals on this issue.  In the meantime, the below information will still be helpful for understanding where this all came from, and to make an educated guess as to where your case will end up.  For now, if you’re in the trial court, use Daubert again (sheesh)!

Jared

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So you and your trial court relied on the current version of section 90.702, Florida Statutes, and applied the Daubert test to determine the admissibility of a new or novel expert opinion. But now that your case is on appeal, the Florida Supreme Court has said that Daubert never applied and the Frye test applies in Florida. What will happen to your case on appeal? Two decisions from two Florida districts give us some hints.

The Florida Supreme Court building

The supeme court’s recent reaffirmance of Frye is requiring districts to develop methods for handling cases founded on Daubert.

A brief history of the Daubert/Frye issue in Florida

First, some brief background (which you probably already know). Frye v. United States, 298 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923) has long provided the test for admissibility of expert opinion in Florida and federal courts. In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993), the United States Supreme Court held that a new test would apply for federal courts. But Florida courts stuck with Frye.

In 2013, the Florida Legislature amended section 90.702, Florida Statutes, to incorporate Daubert. But the Florida Supreme Court remained silent on the amendment for years and, in Florida, only the judiciary can formally adopt procedural rules. So Florida trial and appellate practitioners alike were left uncertain–should we use Daubert or Frye?

The intermediate appellate courts too were left without much guidance. The Fourth District held that it would apply the new statute–Daubert–because “statutes are presumed to be constitutional and are to be given effect until declared otherwise.” Crane Co. v. DeLisle, 206 So. 3d 94, 100 n. 7 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016)[.pdf]. Most of the Fourth DCA’s sister districts also applied Daubert. See id. (listing cases from the First, Second, and Third Districts).

Well, in 2018, the Florida Supreme Court reviewed the Fourth District’s opinion and declared the statutory revision to section 90.702 unconstitutional, thereby reaffirming that Frye is the test to apply in Florida. Delisle v. Crane Co., 258 So. 3d 1219, 1229 (Fla. 2018)[.pdf].

What happens to all the pipeline cases on appeal? It depends.

What happens to all the appeals from judgments pre-dating DeLisle, where the trial courts appropriately relied on the statute and the intermediate appellate decisions and applied Daubert?

Shortly after the supreme court issued its Delisle decision, the First District confronted this situation in D.R. Horton, Inc. – Jacksonville v. Heron’s Landing Condo. Ass’n of Jacksonville, Inc., 44 Fla. L. Weekly D109, 2018 WL 6803698 (Fla. 1st DCA Dec. 27, 2018)[.pdf]. Importantly, in Delisle, the supreme court had also reaffirmed that a Frye analysis is only required “when an expert attempts to render an opinion that is based upon new or novel scientific techniques.” Id. at *4. By contrast, in D.R. Horton, “the trial court, albeit in the context of its Daubert analysis, found that Appellee’s experts used a scientifically reliable and peer-reviewed methodology that was the industry standard.” Id. at *4. In other words, there were no new or novel scientific techniques at play. Consequently, the First District held there was no need to remand for a Frye analysis–there was no legal basis for the appellate court to hold that admitting that expert’s opinion was invalid.

More recently, in Kemp v. State, 4D15-3472, 2019 WL 2083045 (Fla. 4th DCA May 8, 2019)[.pdf], on rehearing, the Fourth District held that use of the Daubert standard required remand for a Frye hearing. There, the State sought to introduce an expert that asserted he could determine whether a car was braking at the time of an accident based on the location and “arc[ing]” character of damage on the cars involved.

The trial court never considered whether this was “new or novel” under the Frye test because Daubert applied at that time. However, because the appeal was in “the pipeline” when DeLisle issued, the Fourth District was to apply Frye–if Frye applied at all to the facts of the case before it.

The Fourth District recognized that Frye would only apply if the scientific principles were new or novel, but unlike in D.R. Horton, the appellate court could not tell from the record. Hence, it remanded for the trial court to determine the matter. The court also ruled that, even if the trial court found the matter was “pure opinion” testimony and Frye did not apply, the trial court should still determine “whether the expert had training and experience in the specific method he used to reach his conclusions.” The court ruled that if the State failed its burden to prove the admissibility of the expert’s opinions, the court should grant a new trial for the defendant. If the State prevailed on proving the opinions admissible, the court should reinstate the defendant’s convictions and sentences.

The legal battleground for appeal will be whether or not the type of expert opinion provided is subject to Frye.

What we can gather from these opinions is that a case impacted by an expert opinion admitted under the Daubert standard will probably be reversed for further proceedings to determine admissibility under Frye, unless the opinion is of a type not subject to a Frye standard or the record already reveals the answer under Frye.

Thus, the argument for an appellee seeking to uphold a judgment based in part on testimony admitted under Daubert is that either the scientific principles upon which the expert’s opinion was based were not new or novel, or that the trial court made sufficient findings to demonstrate the Frye test was satisfied (even if not explicitly referenced). Both of these arguments are effectively identical to a harmless error analysis–even though the trial court applied Daubert, the application of that test had no impact on the outcome of the case.

Meanwhile, an appellant seeking reversal should argue that the expert’s opinion is based on new or novel scientific principles–so Frye applies–and the record does not demonstrate that the expert’s opinion satisfies the Frye test. And, as in most appeals of both civil and criminal appeals, the appellant should argue that it is the appellee’s burden to prove the error did not have an effect on the verdict (read more about this here).

Briefing Deadlines Fixed

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A vintage image of a girl in a boat adorning a calendar from January 1920

The Appellate Rules Committee was not caught without a paddle and fixed a deadline glitch before January 1, 2019.

The Florida Supreme Court fixed briefing deadlines for cross-appeals and dependency and parental rights termination cases, effective January 1, 2019 at 12:03 am.

One of the biggest changes to the Appellate Rules this year is the counterbalancing of the deletion of 5 extra days for mailing with the lengthening of most appellate deadlines. Generally speaking, most deadlines that were formerly 5 days are now 10, for example, and the brief deadlines that used to be 20 days are now 30, and deadlines that used to be 10 days are now 15. You read that right — even though we’ve lost mailing days, we generally now have five or more additional days to serve most items. (Why or more? Because when the Court took away mailing days, it also gave a little extra boon of allowing you to start counting “on the next day that isn’t a “Saturday, Sunday, or Legal Holiday” rather than the next day, so you are no longer starting 3 days into your response time when you walk into your office on Monday morning to find something was filed after hours on Friday. We break down the new math in a prior blog post).

With all of those rule changes (three different orders!) something was bound to fall through the cracks. Under the October 25, 2018 orders, two appellate rules — Rules 9.146 and 9.210 — inadvertently kept the old, shorter deadlines. Luckly, the Appellate Rules Committee was on it, and moved the Florida Supreme Court for rehearing to fix the oversight. Rather than grant rehearing, the Court treated the motion as an “out of cycle report” from the committee, adopting the changes and making them in effect as 12:03am on January 1, 2019. See In re Amendments to Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.146 & 9.210, No. SC18-1917, 43 Fla. L. Weekly S602 (Fla. Dec. 6, 2018)[.pdf]. Now cross appeal briefs have the same amount of time as initial and answer briefs, 30 days from service of the last brief. See Rule 9.210. And in dependency and termination of parental rights proceedings, practitioners also have the benefit of additional time (30 days for an answer and 15 days for a reply). See Rule 9.146.

The fully integrated .pdf rule set is now available on the Florida Bar’s website. Moreover, the fully integrated revised rules are also available at http://rules.floridaappellate.com.

An historic image from a calendar for the month of January

Calculating Deadlines Under the New Rules

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An historic image from a calendar for the month of January

Don’t let January’s rule changes cause you confusion!

There is always some confusion when new rules affecting the calculation of deadlines come into effect, as happened on the January 1, 2019. How do you calculate deadlines that straddle the gap? Someone reached out directly to us to ask the question, so here’s our answer for posterity.

The hypothetical is this: Appellant files an initial brief on Friday, December 28, 2018. When is the answer brief due? Under the version of the rules in effect on December 28, 2018, an Answer Brief the rule stated:

Unless otherwise required, the answer brief shall be served within 20 days after service of the initial brief.

See former Rule 9.210(f). In addition, former rule 2.514(b) allowed an additional five days added to any deadline calculated based on service by e-mail:

(b) Additional Time after Service by Mail or E-mail. When a party may or must act within a specified time after service and service is made by mail or e-mail, 5 days are added after the period that would otherwise expire under subdivision (a).

So under the old rules, the 20th day is Thursday, January 17, 2019. Add five additional days for service by e-mail, and the deadline is Tuesday, January 22, 2019.

New Rules, New Math

The new rules change the calculations. The new version of Rule 9.210(f) states:

Unless otherwise required, the answer brief shall be served within 2030 days after service of the initial brief…

And the new version of Rule 2.514(b) eliminates extra days for service by e-mail, now reading:

(b) Additional Time after Service by Mail. When a party may or must act within a specified time after service and service is made by mail, 5 days are added after the period that would otherwise expire under subdivision (a).

Finally, the new version of Rule 2.514 gives you a break on when to start counting if someone served you something on the eve of a weekend or holiday. Where before, you would “exclude the day of the event that triggers the period” and start counting on the next calendar date, the new rule states that you “begin counting from the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.” See New Rule 2.514(a)(1).

The net result is that instead of counting 20 days (which could be more, if the last day fell on a weekend) and then adding an additional 5 days for mailing (which could be more, if the last day fell on a weekend), you now count a straight 30 days, starting from the next business day. If the last day falls on a weekend or holiday, you then role to the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday. If the new rule applies to the brief filed December 28, 2018, you start counting from Monday December 31, 2018 (after confirming it is not a holiday; it is not). From there, the 30th day would be Tuesday, January 29, 2019.

Do the New Rules Change the Due Date?

So is the deadline the 22nd or the 29th? It’s great that the new rules tend to net attorneys more total time, but what happens this month? Good question.

There is voluminous case law about whether a newly-enacted statute should be applied retroactively.

In order for a law to apply retroactively, the court must determine (1) if there is evidence that the legislature clearly intended for the law to be applied retroactively, and (2) if so, whether the retrospective application of that law is constitutionally permissible. See Pondella Hall for Hire v. Lamar, 866 So.2d 719, 722 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004). In the absence of clear legislative intent that a law apply retroactively, the general rule is that procedural statutes apply retroactively and substantive statutes apply prospectively.

Envtl. Confederation of Sw. Florida, Inc. v. State, 886 So. 2d 1013, 1017 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004). But, this is not a statute enacted by the legislature, but rather, a rule of procedure promulgated by the Supreme Court.

Moreover even when the new law is stated by the Supreme Court, the analysis of retroactivity has constitutional dimensions:

the essential considerations in determining whether a new rule of law should be applied retroactively are essentially three: (a) the purpose to be served by the new rule; (b) the extent of reliance on the old rule; and (c) the effect on the administration of justice of a retroactive application of the new rule.

Witt v. State, 387 So. 2d 922, 926 (Fla. 1980).

But this rule generally comes into play when the Florida Supreme Court makes a ruling that itself has constitutional dimensions. It does not speak to rule changes.

Here, we are dealing with changes to rules of procedure and not statutory pronouncements or decisional changes in the law. The answer therefore lies in a different line of cases. Since the 1800s, the Florida Supreme Court has held that its rules of court are prospective in nature:

Unless otherwise specifically provided, our court rules are prospective only in effect. Poyntz v. Reynolds, 37 Fla. 533, 19 So. 649 (1896).

Tucker v. State, 357 So. 2d 719, 721 (Fla. 1978).

To avoid litigation in some criminal cases, the Supreme Court has sometimes expressed this rule of interpretation outright when making a rule change. For example, in amending the rules regarding post-conviction collateral relief, the court expressly stated the effective date and then stated, in the rule itself, “Motions pending on that date are governed by the version of this rule in effect immediately prior to that date.”
In re Amendments to Florida Rules of Judicial Admin.; Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure; and Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure–Capital Postconviction Rules, 148 So. 3d 1171, 1180 (Fla. 2014). However, precedent dictates that the rules apply prospectively only unless the Court expressly states otherwise. Poyntz v. Reynolds, 37 Fla. 533, 19 So. 649 (1896); Tucker v. State, 357 So. 2d 719, 721 (Fla. 1978).

Apply the Rules in Effect on the Triggering Date

All of this is a long-winded analysis to come to a very logical conclusion: calculate deadlines based upon the rules in effect on the date of the event that triggers the calculation. So in our hypothetical, because the deadline for service of an answer brief is based on the date of service of the initial brief, and because the initial brief was served last year when the old rules were in effect, calculate the deadline using the old rules. The answer brief is due Thursday, January 17, 2019.

Don’t miss our other entries on the rule changes, including our overview, and our discussion of new types of appeals authorized by the new rules. Let us help you with your appeal! 813-778-5161.