Appraisers should keep their eyes out for Lyman v. St. Jude Medical, S.C. (May 27, 2008). This opinion by the US District Court (E.D. Wisconsin) deals with competing Daubert challenges by both parties to the expert damages testimony offered by the other. When the defendant medical center terminated an exclusive, 10-year agreement with the plaintiff to sell cardiac rhythm management products just two years into the contract, the plaintiff sued to recover alleged damages stemming from the breach. Both parties’ experts were CPAs with extensive appraisal experience; the court had no trouble finding them qualified. However, the experts took very different approaches to their damages projections.
After critiquing both of the appraisers’ work, the court’s decision stresses the need for thorough, independent appraiser analysis, as well as the importance of data verification. The full abstract of Lyman appears in the just-released August 2008 issue of the Business Valuation Update, available here. The full text of the court’s opinion is also available to subscribers of BVLaw here.