The plaintiff brought a motion for leave to admit a late-served expert report on broker negligence in an action arising from a motorcycle accident.
The expert report was served five months after the deadline under the Rules of Civil Procedure and one month after a without-prejudice deadline set by the pre-trial judge.
The court applied the two-part test under Rule 53.08(1), finding that while the explanations of difficulty finding an expert and staff turnover were problematic, the unique circumstance that the report was served nearly two years before the reconvened pre-trial tipped the balance in the plaintiff's favour.
Leave was granted.
The court also directed the order of trial, ordering the tort action against the municipality to proceed first, followed by the broker negligence action.
