{"id":905059,"date":"2025-11-26T14:44:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T21:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=905059"},"modified":"2025-11-26T14:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T21:44:08","slug":"expert-testimony-establish-standard-of-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/expert-testimony-establish-standard-of-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget Fifth Graders \u2014 Are You Smarter Than a CEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Daniel Lund III | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jdsupra.com\/legalnews\/forget-fifth-graders-are-you-smarter-1864376\/?origin=CEG&amp;utm_source=CEG&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=CustomEmailDigest&amp;utm_term=jds-article&amp;utm_content=article-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Phelps Dunbar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court of South Dakota says that (in certain circumstances) you need to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That court wrangled with the evidentiary requirements for professional negligence and breach of contract claims arising from the construction of a clinical research facility in Brookings, South Dakota. The general contractor on the project alleged defects in the design and installation of the HVAC system and suspended ceiling, resulting in contamination and operational failures. The general contractor sued the architect, engineers, and contractors, asserting breach of contract and implied warranties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing that the GC\u2019s claims required <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adviseandconsult.net\/experts.php\">expert testimony<\/a> to establish the applicable standard of care and causation. For its part, the general contractor was relying solely on the testimony of its CEO, who lacked technical qualifications in architecture, engineering, and ceiling systems. The circuit court granted summary judgment to all defendants, finding that \u201cthis type of professional negligence claim requires expert testimony to establish what the standard of care is, how the defendant\u2019s design breached the standard of care and how the breach also caused the damages that resulted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The South Dakota Supreme Court \u2013 affirming summary judgment for the architect, engineering firm, and ceiling contractor (but reversing as to the HVAC contractor and its subcontractor, holding that genuine issues of material fact remained regarding the claims against those parties) \u2013 stated regarding the summary judgments being affirmed: \u201cAverage laypersons would not be knowledgeable regarding the type of equipment necessary to adjust pressure and airflow. Nor would they necessarily know what \u2018volume regulation\u2019 means or why it is significant to the alleged negligence and issues with the Facility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court further explained, \u201cExpert testimony is required to establish the standard of care for a professional unless the issue is within the common knowledge of the jury.\u201d Without such testimony, \u201cthe failure to produce expert opinions is fatal to a litigant\u2019s case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>RTI, LLC v. Pro. Eng\u2019g, Inc., 2025 SD 64; 2025 S.D. LEXIS 179; 2025 LX 553857 (November 12, 2025)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Lund III | Phelps Dunbar The Supreme Court of South Dakota says that (in certain circumstances) you need to be. That court wrangled with the evidentiary requirements for professional negligence and breach of contract claims arising from the construction of a clinical research facility in Brookings, South Dakota. The general contractor on the project&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/expert-testimony-establish-standard-of-care\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Forget Fifth Graders \u2014 Are You Smarter Than a CEO?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expert-witness","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Forget Fifth Graders \u2014 Are You Smarter Than a CEO? 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