Page:Veronica Ollier v. Sweetwater Union High School District (September 19, 2014) US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.djvu/26

 his “extensive[]” work with CIF, and his high school baseball coaching tenure—did not enter the softball or baseball dugouts (or batting cages), and yet he sought to testify “on the renovations to the softball field, including new fencing, bleachers, and dugout areas.”

Parker’s only visit to Castle Park lasted barely an hour. And that visit was as cursory as Schiff’s: Parker—a former softball coach who Sweetwater offered as an expert on “all aspects of the game of softball,”—“toured the Castle Park facilities,” including the softball and baseball fields and boys and girls locker rooms, and “was present while both a baseball and a softball game were being played simultaneously.” She “observed the playing surfaces, dugout areas, field condition, fencing, bleachers, and amenities,” but only from afar. Like Schiff, Parker took no photographs and no measurements. She did not speak to anyone at Castle Park about the fields. And she admitted that her proposed testimony about the softball team’s allegedly inferior fundraising and accounting practices was speculative.

Schiff and Parker based their proposed testimony on superficial inspections of the Castle Park facilities. Even if a visual walkthrough, without more, could be enough in some cases to render expert testimony admissible under Rule 702, it certainly does not compel that conclusion in all cases. Moreover, as the district court found, Schiff and Parker’s conclusions were based on their “personal opinions and speculation rather than on a systematic assessment of [Castle Park’s] athletic facilities and programs.” But personal opinion testimony is inadmissible as a matter of law under Rule 702, see Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 43 F.3d 1311, 1319 (9th Cir. 1995)(“Daubert II”), and speculative testimony is inherently unreliable, see Diviero v. Uniroyal