Clemente v. Blumenberg
In this case, plaintiff Deborah Clemente, injured in a rear-end collision, alleged a herniated disk, supported by her treating neurologist and MRI. Defendant Ernest J. Blumenberg sought to introduce a biomedical engineer, M. Kenneth Salzer, as an expert to argue the low-impact collision could not cause such injuries. The court conducted a Frye hearing to assess the engineer's methodology, which relied on repair costs and photographs to calculate vehicle velocity change. Finding this methodology unscientific, untested, and not generally accepted, the court precluded Salzer's testimony. The judge emphasized the gatekeeping role to exclude unreliable scientific and technical evidence under both Frye and Daubert/Kumho standards, noting the engineer lacked medical qualifications for injury causation opinions.