After “Roundup” of Evidence, EPA finds Glyphosphate “Not Likely to be Carcinogenic to Humans”

By on September 27, 2016

croppyEarlier this month, the EPA issued a position paper regarding the risks of glyphosate.  Notably, in classifying glyphosate’s cancer risk to humans, the EPA states, “The strongest support is for ‘not likely to be carcinogenic to humans’ at doses relevant to human health risk assessment.”

Although the EPA report is not dispositive on the issue and will be followed by with a “final assessment” in early 2017, it is a positive development.  The FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel of the EPA, much like the European Food Safety Authority, is not accepting the recent IARC position that glyphosate is “probably” carcinogenic to humans.  Consequently, causation in litigation involving glyphosate will remain a challenge for plaintiffs’ firms to establish.

Since the IARC position was issued in 2015, plaintiff’s firms have filed a number of lawsuits in California, Illinois, and New York against Monsanto.  In late July, one plaintiffs’ firm filed a motion requesting that the multidistrict panel be in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, where three lawsuits are pending. In total, 21 lawsuits have been filed in 14 district courts nationwide naming Monsanto only.  The parties expect a ruling this fall on whether the matters against Monsanto will be consolidated.

Filed under Environmental, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation, Uncategorized Tagged with , ,

How Much is too Much? Counsel’s Active Conduct in Asbestos Suit Results in Forfeiture of Jurisdictional Defense

By and on June 9, 2016

Since the jurisdictionU.S. Supreme Court handed down Daimler AG v. Bauman 134 S.Ct. 746 (2014), personal jurisdiction defenses have experienced a renaissance in asbestos litigation.  Defendants that wish to win such arguments, however, are well advised to heed a recent ruling by Judge Gibney, who presides over Rhode Island’s state court asbestos docket.  In Bazor v. Abex Corporation et al., C.A. No. PC-10-3965 (R.I. Super. May 2, 2016), Judge Gibney issued a ruling that is instructive on what a defendant must do to preserve its right to contest jurisdiction, holding that a defense counsel’s “active conduct constitute[d] forfeiture of the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction.”  The court referred to “forfeiture” as opposed to “waiver” because the defendant had properly asserted the lack of personal jurisdiction as a special defense.

In this instance, the “active participation” included the following conduct during the two years and nine months between the filing of an answer and the motion to dismiss: filing an objection to the trial date, attending a plaintiff’s deposition, requesting and participating in the reopening of that deposition, participating in the deposition of the plaintiffs’ expert, objecting to the expert’s deposition on non-jurisdictional grounds, disclosing eight  expert witnesses, filing 15 motions in limine, supplementing its expert witness disclosure, producing two expert witnesses for depositions, responding to discovery (without preserving the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction), supplementing its expert discovery, moving to compel the production of the plaintiffs’ bankruptcy trust documents, and participating in at least ten status/settlement conferences.  In short, defense counsel’s very active participation in the litigation was so active so as to constitute “forfeiture” of a claim of lack of personal jurisdiction.

Looking to federal jurisprudence for guidance, the court focused on defense counsel’s litany of activity over several years.  Synthesizing federal decisions, the court identified two  principal elements to weigh to determine whether a defense of personal jurisdiction is forfeited: (a) the delay in asserting the defense; and (b) the “nature and extent” of the defendant’s involvement in the case.  The court noted that the first factor could be met by as little as four months’ delay; but reasoned that the second factor weighed more heavily than the mere passage of time.  With regard to the second factor, the court cited defendant’s filing of an appearance, participation in discovery, attending and taking depositions, and filing and opposing motions as evidence of active participation.  Notably, the court found that the defendant had created “substantial delay” without “a sufficiently meritorious reason” for failing to assert its defense for two years and nine months after the filing of its answer.  The level of participation appears to have been the deciding factor; with special attention brought to “the fifteen motions in limine [defendant] filed which sought merits-based rulings” and the failure to continually assert the defense throughout the course of litigation.  However, of concern is that the ruling did nothing to establish a “bright line” rule of precisely how much participation is “too much” so as to result in a forfeiture of a jurisdictional defense.

It is unclear where this decision leaves litigants who need to participate in early discovery and who also want to preserve their jurisdictional defenses.  Defendants who wish to maintain their defenses are faced with choosing from various interpretations of the Bazor decision, focusing on the assertion of their rights and carefully monitoring the level of their participation.  The decision could reasonably be read to indicate that a party may participate in discovery, but only if they continue to maintain and pursue their jurisdictional defense.  Alternatively, some parties may refuse to participate in non-jurisdictional discovery for fear of inadvertent forfeiture. This may create friction with plaintiff’s counsel when their clients are in poor health, which frequently occurs in asbestos cases across the country.  Ultimately, the lesson of Bazor may be that safest resolution for defense counsel will be to file and pursue dispositive jurisdictional motions as early in the case as possible.  At the very least, defense counsel should raise the defense in pleadings and discovery which precede the filing of the motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds and/or reach some sort of agreement with opposing counsel to prevent forfeiture despite some level of active participation in the case. For example, defense counsel in the asbestos litigation should obtain a stipulation that attendance at an exigent deposition does not constitute a waiver of personal jurisdiction arguments; and that stipulation should be placed on the record.

Filed under active participation, Asbestos, Daimler AG v. Baumann, Discovery, Federal Court Litigation, Jurisdiction, Litigation Issues and Factors, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation

Hon. Garrett L. Wong takes over as San Francisco Asbestos Department Presiding Judge

By and on January 19, 2016

Judge Garrett L. Wong  formally replaced  the Hon, Teri L. Jackson  as the San Francisco Superior Court Asbestos Presiding Judge on January 11, 2016.   Judge Wong is a San Francisco native and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Judge Wong wonghas a diverse professional background, with experience in civil and criminal litigation in both the public and private sector. He has worked as a deputy public defender, a commercial, criminal and environmental litigator in private practice, and as in-house counsel for SBC Communications.  In 2005, he was appointed to the San Francisco Superior Court by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. For eight years, he served as both a misdemeanor and trial judge at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco.   In 2014, Judge Wong began serving as an Associate Judge for the Appellate Panel at San Francisco Superior Court. He is now the Presiding Judge for the Appellate Panel. Although Judge Wong has only served as a civil judge for two years, he already has presided over several asbestos cases.

The San Francisco Superior Court carries the largest asbestos litigation caseload of any of California’s 58 Superior Courts. In 2009, the Court created a single asbestos case management department to handle asbestos cases.  Like his predecessor, Judge Wong will continue the Court’s efforts to efficiently move asbestos cases towards trial and resolution.

Filed under Asbestos, San Francisco Superior Court, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation

Multiple trial courts toss out “single fiber” causation theory under both Federal and state law

By on June 17, 2015

Since the first asbestos filing by a plaintiff’s lawyer, plaintiff medical experts in mesothelioma cases have infamously opined that every exposure to asbestos by a plaintiff – including exposure to a single asbestos fiber – is sufficient to cause disease. Not only does this type of expert testimony ease the connecting of the causation dots, but it permits the recycling of generalized and “boilerplate” expert reports. Recently, however, court rulings have given hope to defendants in the litigation that plaintiffs may now have to put considerably more time and effort into developing their expert opinions by precluding those experts from advancing the “single fiber” theory.

In January 2013, asbestos-fibresthe District Court of Utah rejected plaintiff’s attempt to use “single fiber” expert testimony. Smith v. Ford Motor Co., D. Utah, No. 2:08-cv-630, 1/18/13. In Smith, Ford moved to dismiss the “single fiber” testimony of plaintiff’s medical expert, arguing that the theory was speculative and without scientific foundation. As a result, it was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). The district court agreed and found that the pathologist’s opinion was wholly “unsupported by sufficient or reliable scientific research, data, investigations or studies.” The court elaborated that this testimony did “virtually nothing to help the trier of fact decide the all-important question of specific causation” and is based solely on the belief that any exposure should not be ruled out as a contributing cause. Finally, the court pointed out that the fact that this type of testimony survived Daubert challenges in the past was an “aberration.”

In December 2014, the Northern District of Illinois similarly found that this theory was inadmissible under Daubert and Rule 702. In Krik v. Crane Co., No. 10-cv-7435, N.D. Ill. December 12, 2014 (Doc. # 314), the Northern District analyzed the opinions of plaintiff’s medical experts and industrial hygienist, finding that these opinions indeed espoused  the “single fiber” theory. In holding that single fiber causation is “not an acceptable approach for a causation expert to take,” the court noted that “single fiber” causation was inconsistent with Illinois’ express adoption of the “frequency, regularity and proximity” causation test in Thacker v. UNR Industries, Inc., 603 N.E.2d  449, 457. Further, the “any exposure” theory was also inadmissible given plaintiff”s experts’ “wholesale failure to based their opinions on facts specific to this case.” In fact, the court specifically pointed out that plaintiff’s experts admitted in their depositions that they had  not considered any case-specific facts in formulating their opinions.

In April 2015, a New York court also rejected the single fiber theory, finding that plaintiff’s theory of cumulative, unquantifiable exposure did not pass muster under New York’s rules of evidence. Juni v. A.O. Smith Water Products, No. 19031/12, 2015 WL 1623788 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Apr. 13, 2015). Specifically, the court found that the “every exposure” testimony was insufficient to prove that any specific exposure was a significant contributing factor to causing the disease. The result? An $11 million verdict against Ford was overturned.

These most recent rejections of the “every exposure” theory are significant victories for defendants because they add to the accumulation of similar rulings across the country. After years of accepting the “every exposure” theory, courts are now requiring that both plaintiff and defense expert opinions be based on case-specific facts grounded in science.

Filed under Any Exposure, Asbestos, asbestos exposures, Illinois, single fiber theory of causation, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation

Keeping Your Adversary’s Environmental Expert Honest

By on April 16, 2013

Law 360 reported on April 12, 2013 that Steven Donziger, counsel for the indigenous Ecuadorians known as the Lago Agrio plaintiffs, “meddled” in the preparation of a key environmental report used against Chevron as part of an effort to secure, by hook or by crook, the $19.2 billion judgment.

The environmental consultants at Stratus Consulting Inc. (“Stratus”) who prepared the report, Law 360 reported, found no credible scientific evidence linking Chevron’s operations in Ecuador to groundwater contamination, adverse health effects or an increase in the incidence of cancer. In fact, Stratus claims it was pressured by Donziger into making false public statements and concealing its role in drafting a purportedly “independent damages assessment.” The lead Stratus consultant stated, “I based my opinions and conclusions on a series of assumptions and data provided to me by Donziger and the [Ecuadorian plaintiffs’] representatives that I do not know to be true.”

In a press release, dated April 11, 2013, Stratus announced that Chevron had dismissed with prejudice the fraud and racketeering claims asserted against Stratus in the SDNY. According to the press release, Stratus’ environmental consulting work for Donziger was used in a report submitted to the Ecuadorian court by the supposedly “independent” court expert, Richard Cabrera, as part of a process that Stratus learned was “fatally tainted” by Donziger and the plaintiffs’ representatives “behind the scenes activities.”

 Most toxic tort cases do not have stakes anywhere near as high as Chevron’s Ecuador case. There is the danger in any high stakes litigation that an environmental consultant is pressured into offering baseless conclusions under pressure from plaintiffs’ counsel or, alternatively, that the consultant’s data is used improperly.

 There are steps that the diligent defense lawyer can take to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to expert witness fraud or abuse.

1. Obtain all the data. Well before the deposition of the plaintiffs’ expert, every piece of scientific data available should be obtained and reviewed. It may not be enough to rely upon reports submitted by the consultant to plaintiffs’ counsel or a regulatory agency. Often, the reports do not contain all the available information.

Where site investigation work is involved, it is good practice to obtain the consultant’s field notes so that defense counsel can investigate what on-site activities were performed on each day and by whom. If an issue in the case involves groundwater contamination, defense counsel should obtain the location, depth and construction details of each monitoring well, if detailed boring logs are not part of the report. The boring logs can provide important information concerning the observations of the staffers involved in the drilling, such as odors detected during drilling and soil composition.

2. Does the data permit the consultant to draw the conclusions made in his report? If there is a claim that groundwater contamination caused off-site impacts, for example, what assumptions were made in reaching this conclusion. Were on-site or off-site perimeter wells drilled? What does the data suggest about the presence of a groundwater plume? Was sufficient groundwater data obtained to permit reliable mapping of a plume? What assumptions does the consultant make concerning the size of the plume or the speed at which it is moving? Are these assumptions based on scientific evidence or guesswork?

Defense counsel should always be on the lookout for data that does not support the consultant’s conclusions. Does the consultant draw selectively upon certain pieces of data to support his thesis but ignore other data?

Often, an environmental consultant and a toxicologist are both retained to advance plaintiffs’ theory of the case.  Does the plaintiffs’ toxicology expert misapply the information generated by the environmental consultant? If the toxicologist alleges that plaintiffs were injured due to an inhalatory exposure, for example, evidence of elevated groundwater levels is not relevant in the absence of evidence that contaminants in groundwater reached the ambient air where they could be inhaled.

Similarly, evidence of groundwater contamination in a monitoring well may not be indicative of the quality of the water at plaintiffs’ tap. There may be data gaps that plaintiffs’ toxicologist will attempt to fill with mere speculation. Defense counsel must be prepared to exploit those gaps and reveal the fallacies in the expert’s presentation.   

 

Filed under Chevron, environmental consultants, environmental data, Fraud, Independent Court Expert, Lago Agrio plaintiffs, Richard Cabrera, Steven Donziger, Stratus Consulting Inc., tainted evidence, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation Tagged with

Student Bitten By Tick: Hotchkiss School On Hook For $41.75 Million

By on April 5, 2013

On March 27, 2013, a jury in federal district court in Bridgeport, Connecticut awarded Cara Munn, a 20-year-old  woman who formerly attended the Hotchkiss School  in Lakeville, Connecticut, $41,750,000 in a case styled Orson D. Munn III et al. v. The Hotchkiss School, No. 3:09cv0919 (SRU).  The case raises important issues concerning “duty” and “assumption of risk”.

The jury determined that Hotchkiss, a prestigious prep school, was negligent for two reasons: (1) in failing to warn plaintiff before or during a school sponsored trip to China during the summer of 2007 about the risk of insect-borne illness on the trip; and (2) in failing to ensure that plaintiff used protective measures to prevent infection by an insect-borne disease while visiting Mt. Pan in China.

In an article appearing in the Connecticut Law Tribune (Vol. 39, No. 13), titled “Tick Bite Leads To Big Verdict“,  it was reported that the school was faulted specifically  for not warning plaintiff (and her parents) that she would be traveling in mountainous and forested terrain. As a result, the jury determined that the plaintiff was not aware that she had to protect herself from insects by wearing bug repellent, long sleeve shirts and trousers, and by avoiding brushy undergrowth.

According to Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint, Ms. Munn’s parents had Cara flown back to the United States in July ’07, where she was hospitalized for several weeks at Weill Cornell Medical Center in the pediatric ICU and later at the Rusk Institute for extensive rehab.  As a result of her severe encephalitis, plaintiff suffered severe neurological and motor injuries, including permanent loss of speech. 

The case, which will almost certainly be appealed, raises significant issues concerning duty and the assumption of personal responsibility by parents who agree to have their child travel abroad for educational purposes. Apart from the obvious differences in food, culture and living conditions, traveling abroad carries many potential risks, some of which are foreseeable and some of which are not. Stepping back from the facts presented by this particularly tragic case, should a high school be held responsible for failing to prevent a student from being bitten by a tick in China? What if the tick had bitten her during a field trip to Central Park?

Assuming that the Second Circuit upholds this verdict, what does this case portend for high schools and colleges that plan educational trips abroad? Is there some bright line test that would provide guidance to a school evaluating the safety concerns of its students? Short of wrapping all of their students in cocoons and keeping them closely monitored in classroom settings, how can any school protect against the kind of unforeseen liability presented by this case?

Hotchkiss’ Answer to Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint states that plaintiffs’ claims should be barred by the doctrine of assumption of risk.  The school argues that plaintiffs voluntarily assumed the risk of travel to China as evidenced by their execution of the pre-trip Agreement, Waiver, and Release of Liability.  In this agreement, plaintiffs agreed that Hotchkiss “would not be responsible for any injury to person or property caused by anything other than its sole negligence or willful misconduct” (emphasis added)   Would legal weight did the court give to this release?

Based upon the Verdict Form presented to the jury, it would appear that the trial court gave short shrift to the language in the release.  The jury was asked the following questions: (1) Was one or more of Hotchkiss’ negligent acts or omissions a cause-in-fact of Cara Munn’s injuries; and (2) Was one or more of Hotchkiss’ negligent acts or omissions a substantial factor, that acting alone or in conjunction with other factors, brought about Cara’s injuries?

Those inquiries are a lot different from asking whether the jury finds that Hotchkiss’ “sole negligence or willful misconduct” caused the injuries.  Although the jury determined that plaintiff did not contribute to any degree whatsoever in causing her injuries, it was not asked to consider whether other intervening factors played any role in causing Cara’s injuries.

There are circumstances when a school can and should be held responsible when things go wrong on a school outing.  Three examples come quickly to mind: (1) sending kids into a war zone despite State Department warnings; (2) sending kids abroad into an epidemic earlier identified by the CDC; or (3) taking non-swimmers for an ocean swim outing without proper supervision.

For students, a lot of professionals and teachers recommend students who are focusing in English in college levels to improve their knowledge about English before going to one. Luckily there are sites online that would help students to improve their skills such widening their pronouns list and advancing their vocabulary. These sites are free and it has helped a lot of students.

How is Munn different from these scenarios?  Is a  random bug bite as foreseeable, if at all, as the kinds of risks discussed in the three scenarios above. According to Hotchkiss’ summary judgment memorandum, the CDC reported that plaintiff was the first U.S. traveler ever to have reported TBE after traveling in China. Moreover, no U.S. traveler since plaintiff has developed the disease.  Therefore, how unreasonable was it for Hotchkiss not to take precautions against a risk of harm that arguably had such a slight likelihood of taking place?  Shouldn’t plaintiffs have had to prove that the defendant was on prior notice of the existence of circumstances that could give rise to an injury?

Plaintiffs’ expert, Peter Tarlow once led a group of children, including his own son, on a  tour of Israel.  If a child on that Israel tour had been unexpectedly assaulted by someone holding anti-Zionist views, would Dr. Tarlow expect to be held responsible for any resultant injury because he was “on notice” of decades of endemic unrest in the region?

Two strong CT trial lawyers squared off against each for this eight day trial–for the plaintiffs, Antonio Ponvert of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, one of the New England plaintiff bar’s preeminent  firms, and for the defendant, Penny Q. Seaman of Wiggin & Dana, one of Connecticut’s oldest and most accomplished firms.  The bar should expect to see excellent post-trial briefing as events unfold.  

Filed under assumption of risk, duty, encephalitis, federal district court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, foreseeability, Hotchkiss, jury award, Munn v. Hotchkiss, Negligence, school sponsored trip to China, school sued over tick bite, tick, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation Tagged with ,

The Economic Loss Rule: An Under-Utilized But Not-So-Secret Weapon

By on April 3, 2013

In a decision issued on March 7, 2013, the Supreme Court of Florida reaffirmed Florida’s commitment to adherence to the economic loss rule in product liability litigation. In Tiara Condominium Association, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. etc., et al., No. SC10-1022, the high court provides a helpful discussion of the origin and development of the economic loss rule. In summary, the economic loss rule is described as “the fundamental boundary between contract law, which is designed to enforce the expectancy interests of the parties, and tort law, which imposes a duty of reasonable care and thereby encourages citizens to avoid causing physical harm to others.” Thus, economic loss has been defined by Florida courts as “damage for inadequate value, costs of repair and replacement of the defective product, or consequent loss of profits – without any claim of personal injury or damage to other property.” In other words, economic losses are “disappointed economic expectations,” which are protected by contract law, rather than tort law.

Despite the rule’s underpinnings in the product liability context, the economic loss rule has also been applied to circumstances when the parties are in contractual privity and one party seeks to recover damages in tort for damages arising in contract.

In a product liability context, the economic loss rule was developed to protect manufacturers from liability for economic damage caused by a defective product beyond those damages provided by warranty law.  In discussing the development of economic loss rule principles, the Florida Supreme Court analyzed the California Supreme Court’s holding in Seely v. White Motor Co., 403 P.2d 145 (Cal. 1965). In Seely, the California Supreme Court held that the doctrine of strict liability in tort did not supplant causes of action for breach of express warranty.

In that case, the court was confronted with a situation in which plaintiff sought recovery for economic loss resulting from his purchase of a truck that failed to perform according to expectations. The court concluded that the strict liability doctrine was not intended to undermine the warranty provisions of sales or contract law, but was designed to govern the wholly separate and distinct problem of physical injuries caused by defective products. In East River Steamship Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval, Inc., 476 U.S. 858 (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court adopted the reasoning of Seely when it considered the issue of economic loss resulting from defective products in the context of admiralty.

According to the Supreme Court, when the damage is to the product itself, “the injury suffered – the failure of the product to function properly – is the essence of a warranty action, through which a contracting party can seek to recoup the benefit of its bargain.” Recognizing that the extending strict product liability law to cover economic damages would result in “contract law… drowning in a sea of tort,” the Supreme Court held that “the manufacturer in a commercial relationship has no duty either under a negligence or a strict products liability theory to prevent a product from injuring itself.” Thus, from the outset, the focus of the economic loss rule was directed to damages resulting from defects in the product itself.

In a  Client Alert, dated July 5, 2011, Stites & Harbison lawyers John L. Tate and Cassidy R. Rosenthal wrote about the Kentucky Supreme Court’s adoption of the economic loss rule in Giddings & Lewis, Inc. v. Industrial Risk Insurers (6/18/11). The Court unanimously held that “a manufacturer in a commercial relationship has no duty under a negligence or strict products liability theory to prevent a product from injuring itself.” The Court wrote: “We believe the parties’ allocation of risk by contract should control without disturbance by the courts via product liability theories.”

As discussed by Mr. Tate and Ms. Rosenthal, in Giddings & Lewis, the manufacturer sold a sophisticated machining center to an industrial concern. The parties set forth their mutual obligations in a detailed commercial contract. After seven years of continuous operation, and after the contract’s express warranty expired, the machining center malfunctioned in a spectacular fashion – throwing chunks of steel weighing thousands of pounds across the factory floor. The costs to repair the machining center and to get the business up and running again were almost $3 million. After reimbursing the machine’s owner for its losses, a consortium of insurance companies asserted a subrogation claim against the machining center’s manufacturer. With the warranty expired, the insurance companies sued in negligence, strict liability, negligent misrepresentation, and fraudulent misrepresentation. What could be more tortious conduct that this?  

Applying the economic loss doctrine, the Kentucky Supreme Court agreed with Mr. Tate holding that the purchaser could not recover from the manufacturer under any tort theory. The consortium was limited to contractual remedies, all of which expired years earlier.

Despite such groundbreaking decisions, is the economic loss rule  under-utilized in products liability and commercial litigation today?  Of course, if personal injury results from an alleged defect, the rule does not apply. However, not infrequently, complaints alleging damages arising from a defective product that purportedly caused economic loss sound in negligence or strict products liability. Are defense lawyers seeking dismissal of these tort claims on the basis of the economic loss rule as often as they should?.
 

Filed under Breach Of Warranty, Cassidy R. Rosenthal, East River Steamship Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval, Inc., Economic Loss Doctrine, economic loss rule, Giddings & Lewis, Inc. v. Industrial Risk Insurers, John Tate, Product Liabilitiy Litigation, Seely v. White Motor Co, Stites & Harbison, Tiara Condominium Association, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. etc., et al., Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation Tagged with , , , , ,

Mary Carter And Other Agreements Should Be Disclosed To Juries

By on March 27, 2013

As a general proposition, a defendant at trial suffers unfair prejudice when the court does not permit the jury to learn of certain facts that, if disclosed, would reveal a witness’s bias or self-interest.  If a witness with no apparent motive for lying gives strong testimony favoring one side at trial, that testimony may have a significant impact on the jury.  It is for this reason that all potential bias or self-interest of both fact and expert witnesses must be vigorously explored during pre-trial discovery.

In Polett v. Public Communications, Inc., No. 1865 EDA 2011, slip op. (Pa. Super. March 1, 2013), a verdict for a whopping for $27.6 million in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Civil Division, was reversed on multiple grounds. However, for purposes of this article, we focus on the finding by the Superior Court that it was error for the trial court not to permit the jury to learn that plaintiff’s treating physician, Dr. Richard Booth, an orthopedic surgeon, had been a named defendant earlier in the litigation and had entered into a tolling agreement with the plaintiffs. Under such a tolling agreement, a plaintiff can await the outcome at trial and decide afterward whether to pursue the party with whom she had entered into the tolling agreement.  Dr. Booth’s best protection against being sued at a later date was to ensure that the plaintiffs made a substantial recovery at trial.  Is this self-interest?  You bet!

By way of background, in mid-2006, Zimmer, a medical device manufacturer, launched the Gender Solutions Knee, a knee replacement device designed specifically for women. Zimmer hired Public Communications, Inc. (“PCI”), a marketing firm, to produce a sales video, which would include interviews and footage of patients who had undergone successful knee replacement surgery using the device. Plaintiff Margo Polett underwent successful bilateral knee replacement surgery. On account of her good surgical outcome, her treating physician, Dr. Richard Booth, recommended Mrs. Polett to Zimmer as a candidate to participate in Zimmer’s sales video.

Plaintiffs allege that following the videotaping, which involved Mrs. Polett riding on a stationery exercise bike, her condition worsened and she underwent four further surgeries in failed attempts to repair the damage that plaintiffs alleged occurred during the filming of the promotional video.
Dr. Booth admitted in deposition that the “sword of litigation” hung suspended above his head. Substantial evidence was developed during discovery that when Dr. Booth first gave his causation testimony, which supported plaintiffs’ theory of the case, he had a strong incentive to place responsibility on the medical device manufacturer and the filming company and away from himself.

Due to his clear self-interest in presenting causation testimony favorable to plaintiffs, the  Superior Court determined that the defendants should have been permitted to demonstrate Dr. Booth’s partiality as a doctor who faced the possibility of litigation; who did not think he was at fault; who did not want to alienate his patient; and who squarely placed repsonsibility for Mrs. Polett’s injuries on the filming company and the device manufacturer.  

In so holding, the appellate court concluded that the probative value of the tolling agreement outweighed the danger of unfair prejudice. Although the use of a tolling agreement for impeachment purposes was a matter of first impression for Pennsylvania courts, other Pennsylvania courts had found that analogous agreements were admissible to show bias or prejudice.

Another type of agreement between a plaintiff and a defendant is referred to as a “Mary Carter agreement". These agreements are a means of effectuating a settlement with some but not all defendants in a multi-party lawsuit.  Like the tolling agreement in Pollet, evidence of a Mary Carter agreement’s existence should be presented before the jury, but they are often shrouded in secrecy and never reach the light of day.

Mary Carter agreements usually incorporate the following basic elements although the terms vary from case to case:

1. the defendant in an multi-party lawsuit who enters into the agreement guarantees that the injured plaintiff  will receive a certain amount, even if the plaintiff fails to receive a judgment against that defendant or the amount of the judgment obtained is less than the guaranteed amount;

 2. the agreeing defendant’s liability, which is capped, can be reduced or even eliminated by increasing a co-defendant’s liability;

3. the agreement is kept secret from the jury absent court-ordered disclosure; and

4. the agreeing defendant remains in the lawsuit as a party.
 

For obvious reasons, Mary Carter agreements have been challenged as being unethical. Arguably, the agreement contravenes the canons of professional conduct concerning candor and fairness; conflicts of interest; unjustified litigation; and taking technical advantage of opposing counsel. Because Mary Carter agreements are collusive agreements between parties with supposedly adverse interests, they create an inherent danger of perjury.

Moreover, these agreements mislead the jury into thinking that the agreeing defendant has interests adverse to those of the plaintiff, when, in fact, the defendant may some times share in the proceeds of the plaintiff’s recovery. In my view, lawyers who enter into Mary Carter agreements are walking into an ethical minefield. In New York, these agreements are considered contrary to public policy and are not permitted..

But whether the agreement in question is a tolling agreement or Mary Carter agreement, the finder of fact should be fully apprised of any relevant information that might give rise to bias or interested testimony. It is discouraging that the Polett court seemingly failed to understand this basic premise of trial fairness.

 

Filed under Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Gender Solutions Knee, Mary Carter agreements, orthopedic, Polett v. Public Communications, Inc, Public Communications, Inc, surgeon', tolling agreement, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation, unfair prejudice, Zimmer Tagged with , ,

The Product Liability Dilemma: Product vs. Service.

By on December 18, 2012

Courts have long struggled with hybrid fact scenarios that  involve both a product and a service. When a corporate defendant is sued for personal injury, is it more advantageous for the defendant to be characterized as a service provider rather than a product manufacturer? The knee jerk reaction of some defense lawyers is that they would prefer their client to be cast as service providers. After all, who wants their client to be subjected to a strict liability product claim if it could be avoided, right? Not so fast. The answer to this question may be more complicated that it appears at first blush.

In an article titled, “The Shirt Off My Back: Using the Relationship Between a Product and a Service to Your Advantage,” Brigid M. Carpenter and Caldwell G. Collins, lawyers at Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C., weigh the product versus service dilemma in a thoughtful article that appeared in the IADC Product Liability Committee Newsletter (November 2012).

Carpenter and Collins point out that there are many reasons why a plaintiff or defendant might want to fall within or avoid the products liability statutory schemes that exist in many jurisdictions. On the one hand, strict liability is liability without fault. In those cases, plaintiff has to prove the product is defective and unreasonably dangerous, but there is no burden of proving fault on the part of the manufacturer or seller.

On the other hand, depending upon the circumstances, the authors point out that it might be easier for a plaintiff to prove a defendant breached the duty of reasonable care with regard to its behavior than to proffer credible expert testimony about the defective nature of a product. One factor to be considered is that in negligence actions, sellers and manufacturers may have the advantage of certain defenses not available in product liability cases, such as contributory negligence. However, another consideration is that product liability statutes often carry different damages caps and statutes of limitations, depending upon the jurisdiction.

 Equally important, the authors provide a valuable discussion of how courts tend to resolve the product versus service issue. Their litigation  tip: based upon their survey of the case law, courts tend to focus on the relationship between the product and service in question. Therefore, in the Hathaway v. Cintas Corporate Services case involving a plaintiff burn victim who alleged that the defendant uniform rental company was responsible for his injuries, either as a service provider or a product seller, the authors analyze how the Indiana federal district trial court, in denying summary judgment, focused on the “service” aspects of the uniform rental company’s contract, which provided for the cleaning and maintenance of uniforms provided. 
 

Filed under Hathaway v. Cintas Corporate Services, IADC, Lone Pine Order, product manufacturer, product seller, product versus service, service provider, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation Tagged with

The Role Of The Heeding Presumption In Failure To Warn Litigation

By on November 19, 2012

In many jurisdictions, a product liability plaintiff is not permitted to testify concerning what he or she would have done had there been an adequate warning on a product; such testimony is considered both self-serving and speculative. In the absence of such testimony, some states have adopted the Heeding Presumption.

This rebuttable presumption instructs the jury that had an adequate warning accompanied the product, they are to presume that plaintiff would have “heeded” or followed the warning. This presumption establishes causation by permitting the inference that an adequate warning would have altered plaintiff’s conduct.  

In a compelling article published in the Bloomberg BNA Prduct Safety & Liability Reporter on August 23, 2012, titled," ‘If Only I would Have Been Told…..’ A Failure to Warn Discussion: Causation, the Uncertainty Principle, the Benign Experience Principle", William O. ("Skip") Martin Jr., a partner at Haight Brown and Bonesteel in Los Angeles, discusses the Heeding Presumption and provides strategies for defense counsel to overcome the presumption at trial.

In Reyes v. Wyeth Laboratories, 498 F.2d 1264 (5th Cir. 1974), the Fifth Circuit adopted the Heeding Presumption and described it as follows:

Where a consumer, whose injury the manufacturers should have reasonably foreseen, is injured by a product sold without a required warning, a rebuttable presumption will arise if the consumer would have read any warning provided by the manufacturer, and acted so as to minimize the risks. In the absence of evidence rebutting the presumption, a jury finding that the defendant’s product was the producing cause of the plaintiff’s injury would be sufficient to hold him liable. 

Martin advises that the Heeding Presumption may be rebutted by demonstrating either that the plaintiff did not read or look for any warning, or that plaintiff failed to follow adequate warnings on the product. In the article, Martin provides good case law examples of both scenarios. If it can be demonstrated that the plaintiff would not have read the warning or, if he or she had read them, would not have heeded the warning, the Heeding Presumption is overcome. The key to a successful defense of a failure to warn claim is to require plaintiff to demonstrate that his or her failure to warn claim was a proximate cause of the injury. Often, trial judges overlook that it is plaintiff’s legal burden to establish that an allegedly inadequate or missing warning was a cause of the injury.

In addition to his discussion of the Heeding Presumption, Martin also provides a good outline for taking the deposition of an adversary human factors or warnings expert. Most plaintiff warnings experts fail to present any competent evidence as to whether a warning would have altered the plaintiff’s conduct. Human factors/warnings experts criticize the existing warning or lack of a warning on a product label, but often have done little or nothing to determine how a different warning would have altered the outcome. Again, by focusing on the causation element in plaintiff’s burden of proof, a defendant can reduce the “sting” of plaintiff’s failure to warn allegation.

 

Filed under BNA Product Safety and Liability Reporter, Causation, Failure to Warn, Heeding Presumption, human factors experts, Reyes v. Wyeth Laboratories, Toxic Tort/Product Liability Litigation, warnings experts, William O. (Skip) Martin Tagged with

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