Kost v. Kraft, 2011 ND 69

Loper is a ranch hand who claimed back injury from calves striking him on May 16, 2005.
A later May 23, 2005 incident involving a gate allegedly caused additional pain; MRI showed L5-S1 disc rupture.
Loper sued Adams for negligent supervision and maintenance of the workplace.
Adams moved for summary judgment asserting lack of expert causation evidence linking the calf incident to injury.
Loper’s expert disclosure was delayed; the district court excluded the expert and denied a time extension, granting summary judgment.
Appellate reversal and remand held the district court did not abuse its discretion on exclusion but erred on a genuine-issue-of-fact causation analysis.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Exclusion of expert and enlargement of time for disclosure	Loper argues excusable neglect justifies enlargement	Adams argues timely disclosure was required	No abuse; exclusion upheld, enlargement denied
Causation and superseding intervening gate incident	Gate incident may not absolve calf-incident negligence	Gate incident was superseding and unforeseeable	Genuine issues of material fact remain; summary judgment improper

Clark v. Clark, 2006 ND 182 (2006) (discretion in excluding expert testimony; sanctions for late disclosure)
Dewitz by Nuestel v. Emery, 508 N.W.2d 334 (ND 1993) (preferable remedy is continuance over exclusion of expert testimony)
Alerus Fin., N.A. v. Lamb, 2003 ND 158 (2003) (Rule 6(b) excusable neglect; broad discretion for enlargement of time)
Miller v. Diamond Res., Inc., 2005 ND 150 (2005) (intervening cause must be independent and unforeseeable to relieve liability)
Stewart v. Ryan, 520 N.W.2d 39 (ND 1994) (intervening cause analysis for superseding acts)
Lang v. Wonnenberg, 455 N.W.2d 832 (ND 1990) (burden on plaintiff to prove superseding intervening cause)
First Trust Co. v. Scheels Hardware & Sports Shop, Inc., 429 N.W.2d 5 (ND 1988) (causation chain and intervening acts)