Court Allows Shoemaker Testimony without Frye Hearing

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Maryland's intermediate appellate court held Sept. 20 that diagnostic and treatment methods used by mold expert Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker were sufficiently accepted that they need not be subject to a Frye hearing for admissibility. Montgomery Mutual Insurance Co. v. Chesson, et al., No. 1270 (Md. Ct. Sp. App.).

Ruling in a workers' compensation case, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed a trial court order allowing Dr. Shoemaker's testimony that several church workers sustained sick-building syndrome from workplace exposure to mold.

Josephine Chesson and five other employees of the Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist …