Desmond Lewis and Joy Simmons v. Dr. Jeffrey Deyo

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DESMOND LEWIS AND JOY NO. 2026 CW 0787

SIMMONS, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON
BEHALF THEIR MINOR DAUGHTER,
JANIYAH LEWIS

VERSUS

DR. JEFFREY DEMO; OUR LADY
OF THE LAKE PHYSICIAN GROUP,
LLC D/ B/ A OUR LADY OF THE
LAKE PHYSICIAN GROUP --
PEDIATRIC HEMATOLOGY AND
ONCOLOGY; AND ST. JUDE JULY 16, 2026
CHILDREN' S RESEARCH
HOSPITAL, INC

Our the Lake Physician
In Re: Dr. Jeffrey Deyo and Lady of

LLC, for writs, 19th
Group, applying supervisory
Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, No.

7150572.

BEFORE: PENZATO, MILLER, GREENE, BALFOUR, AND FIELDS, JJ.

WRIT DENIED.

I
Penzato and Greene, JJ., dissent and would grant the writ. We

would reverse the trial court' s June 15, 2026 ruling which denied
defendants' motion to strike plaintiffs' expert, Elizabeth

Peralta. Pursuant to the case management schedule signed by the
court, the plaintiffs' deadline to provide expert reports was

October 30, 2024. Plaintiffs provided Elizabeth Peralta' s expert
report to defendants on April 16, 2026, approximately eighteen
months after the deadline. Production of the report only three
months prior to while allowing time for the deposition of
trial,
the expert, prejudiced the defendants by hampering their efforts
to retain their own expert on the subject matter. Louisiana Code

of Civil Procedure article 1551 provides: " If a party' s attorney
fails to obey a pretrial order, . . . the court, on its own motion

or on the motion of a party, after hearing, may make orders as are
just, including the orders provided in Article 1471( A)( 2)

which includes an order prohibiting the disobedient party from

introducing designated matters in evidence. Accordingly, we find
the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion to

strike, and we would grant defendants' motion to strike plaintiffs'
expert, Elizabeth Peralta.