The Texas Supreme Court rejected plaintiffs’ attempt to engage in a “fishing expedition”  of the employer of two experts retained in a product liability dispute. See In re Ford Motor Co., No. 12-1000 (Tex., 3/28/14).

In this design-defect case, the plaintiff sought to discover alleged  potential bias of the defendant’s two testifying experts by seeking to depose a corporate representative of each expert’s employer. This suit arose from injuries plaintiff Saul Morales allegedly sustained after a Ford vehicle allegedly struck him. Morales had been in his own vehicle, fleeing police who suspected he was driving drunk, said the court. Eventually, Morales stopped his vehicle and continued his flight on foot. One of the police officers likewise left his 2004 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, then pursued and apprehended Morales. While the officer attempted to handcuff Morales, the officer’s vehicle allegedly began rolling backward toward the pair. The vehicle allegedly struck the plaintiff, injuring him.

Morales sued Ford Motor Company, which designed and manufactured the police car, and the car’s seller, Ken Stoepel Ford, Inc. Morales alleged the vehicle had a design defect that allowed the officer unintentionally to place the gear-shift selector between park and reverse, which then caused the vehicle to go into an idle-powered reverse. To defend the lawsuit, Ford retained two expert witnesses: Erin Harley, of Exponent, Inc., and Hugh Mauldin, of Carr Engineering, Inc. After deposing both Harley and Mauldin, Morales sought corporate-representative depositions from Exponent and Carr Engineering on seventeen topics, arguing the additional depositions were necessary to prove each testifying expert’s bias in favor of Ford and other automobile manufacturers.

The courts have expressed concerns about allowing overly expansive discovery about testifying experts that can “permit witnesses to be subjected to harassment and might well discourage reputable experts” from participating in the litigation process. Ex parte Shepperd, 513 S.W.2d 813, 816 (Tex. 1974). The particular deposition notices in this case. said the court,  highlighted the danger of permitting such expansive discovery. In his deposition notices to Carr Engineering and Exponent, Morales sought detailed financial and business information for all cases the companies have handled for Ford or any other automobile manufacturer from 2000 to 2011. Such a “fishing expedition,” said the court, seeking sensitive information covering twelve years, is just the type of overbroad discovery the rules are intended to prevent.

In any event, the most probative information regarding the bias of a testifying expert comes from
the expert herself. In this case, for example, Harley testified that 5% of the cases she handles
are for plaintiffs and that she has never testified against an automobile manufacturer. Similarly,
Mauldin testified that historically about 50% of Carr Engineering’s work is done for Ford.  That was all plaintiff was entitled to, and the lower court order was quashed.