Court: US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Docket: 19-3637
Opinion Date: July 20, 2021
Judge: Lavenski R. Smith
Areas of Law: Personal Injury, Products Liability
After the plaintiff suffered injuries to his right hand while using a RotoZip Model RZ20 hand-held spiral saw, he filed suit against Bosch, the manufacturer, and Lowe’s, the retailer, alleging strict liability and negligence products liability theories. Plaintiff alleged that he was injured when the saw’s auxiliary handle spontaneously detached from the saw’s body.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of the defendants’ joint motion to bar the opinions of the plaintiff’s expert regarding the saw’s alleged design defects and the saw’s failure to have an interlocking device safety measure. The court concluded that the expert’s proposed opinion lacked relevance as it did not fit the facts of this case. The court explained that plaintiff did not meaningfully argue in his brief his claim that the saw was defective for not having an interlocking safety measure and thus waived his claim. Furthermore, even if the issue was not waived, the district court did not err in concluding the expert’s testimony on alternative-design options was not reliable and should not be admitted.
The court also affirmed the district court’s grant of the defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment on the plaintiff’s claims of strict products liability, negligent design, negligent failure to warn, and negligent supply of a dangerous instrumentality. In this case, the district court concluded that the claims involved such complex or technical information that they required expert testimony. Therefore, the exclusion of the plaintiff’s expert was fatal to his claims.
This case law update is brought to you by Freeway Law auto accident and personal injury law attorneys. The following is not one of our cases, but it is of some significance, and we thought we should share it with our readers for informational purposes. The information above is for informational purposes only and not to be construed as legal advice.
