Defense of Mass Tort Claims, Class Actions, and Significant Product-Based Litigation
The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a jury verdict for defendant in a suit alleging that it sold faulty wood chippers to an equipment rental company. James v. Terex USA, LLC, No. 20-14553, 2021 WL 2137599 (11th Cir. May 26, 2021).
At trial, the plaintiff sought to introduce lay testimony from a Shane Dinkins about…
The Tenth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a suit seeking to hold a gunmaker n liable for injuries a woman alleged she suffered when a rifle fired spontaneously. Harris v. Remington Arms Co., LLC, 997 F.3d 1107 (10th Cir. 2021). The case turned on the admissibility of plaintiff’s expert evidence.
Roughly two years after…
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Fourth Circuit’s decision to send a local climate change case against various energy companies. BP P.L.C. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, 141 S. Ct. 1532, 1533 (2021).
Baltimore’s Mayor and City Council sued various energy companies in Maryland state court alleging that the companies concealed the environmental…
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgement against a plaintiff who argued that a forklift was defective in design because it lacked a door. Petersen v. Raymond Corp., 994 F.3d 1224, 1225 (10th Cir. 2021).
Plaintiff allegedly injured himself while operating the Raymond Model 4200 stand-up counterbalance lift truck. The Raymond forklift has…
Your humble blogger had the privilege some years ago of serving as Legal Fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria. This unique organization was founded in the ruins of WWII to serve as a sort of “Marshall Plan of the Mind” and a critical element of recovery from the war. At our session (Lloyd…
In a much anticipated decision, the Supreme Court unanimously (8-0 with 2 concurrences) decided that certain resident plaintiffs injured by products originally manufactured and sold elsewhere could sue in their home states a defendant which was a nationwide company if it “purposefully avail[ed] itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State.” Ford…
Patrick Jane is the fictional lead character of the TV series “The Mentalist.” Ably played by Simon Baker, the character used his skills of reading people, knowledge of people’s reactions, keen powers of observation and deduction, and prodigious memory to assist the police — all the while sipping his cup of tea. …
The Sixth Circuit recently affirmed a trial court’s decision to dismiss a proposed multi-state class action alleging that a car maker sold vehicles with cracked dashboards. James Smith et al. v. General Motors LLC, No. 19-1614, 2021 WL 631475 (6th Cir. 2/18/21). According to Plaintiffs, that defect produces dashboard cracking that could cause severe injuries…
A California federal court dismissed a complaint alleging that a company misled consumers concerning the properties of its Splash-Less bleach cleaner. See Gudgel v. The Clorox Co., No. 4:20-cv-05712 (N.D. Calif. 1/21/21 ). Plaintiff filed this suit on behalf of herself and a putative class, asserting five causes of action against Clorox: (1) violation of…
Ever since the In Re NuvaRing Prods. Liab. Litig. MDL, more than a decade ago, we have had concerns about the use of master pleadings in MDLs. On one hand, the requirement to file a master complaint, and answer, seems to offer some efficiency gains and ease the administrative burden on transferee courts. On the…
