46 results for 'nos:"Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property"'.
J. Dishman partially grants the defendant refrigerator manufacturer's motion to exclude certain expert testimony in this lawsuit stemming from a fire that allegedly began in a recreational vehicle. The owners of the RV contend that the fire was caused by a defective refrigerator, which was inside the RV, and the court finds that their expert's opinions are "generally relevant and helpful." However, certain parts of his report, specifically including his "opinions concerning the safety remedy provided as part of the recalls" and whether the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved, are neither relevant nor reliable.
Court: USDC Western District of Oklahoma , Judge: Dishman, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 5:20cv272, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Negligence, Product Liability, Experts
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J. Dishman denies the plaintiff vehicle owners' motion to exclude certain expert testimony in this product liability lawsuit arising from a fire that they allege started in a recreational vehicle as a result of a defective refrigerator. The defendant refrigerator manufacturer's expert is a certified fire and explosion investigator who has investigated "more than 1,000 fires, including RV fires where gas absorption refrigerators were present." The court does not find his opinions to be unreliable and notes the spoliation issue "can be adequately challenged on cross-examination."
Court: USDC Western District of Oklahoma , Judge: Dishman, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 5:20cv272, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Product Liability, Experts
J. Nardacci preserves for trial claims that seek to hold a fabric dome installation company liable for the collapse of an air-supported sports dome at Utica College due to excess snow, which resulted in more than $3 million in damages. The court rules that the college’s insurer is entitled to seek compensation for the losses to the college’s equipment located inside the dome, which were damaged in the accident. The court further grants summary judgment to the college’s cleaning services company on the manufacturer’s claims for contribution and indemnification, finding the college’s cleaning company was not responsible for the dome’s collapse.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Nardacci, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 6:20cv496, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Insurance, Product Liability, Indemnification
J. Rowland grants a number of Illinois municipalities’ motion to remand this ongoing negligence, nuisance and product liability suit to the Circuit Court of Cook County. The municipalities sued Monsanto and several other companies over their contamination of public land and water with polychlorinated biphenyls, highly carcinogenic chemicals whose production was banned in the U.S. under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. The municipalities initially filed suit in Cook County, but companies had the case moved to federal court from in 2023 on the grounds that federally administered lands and waters were implicated in the complaint. But the court grants the remand on the basis of the municipalities disclaiming any injuries to federal holdings, and only seeking restitution for damage done to their own jurisdictions.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Rowland, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3140, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Environment, Product Liability, Venue
J. Jolivette Brown denies a request by insurers to exclude the damage estimates of a certified public accountant for a high school suing a flooring company for fire damage to its gymnasium. The insurers argue a reasonable juror is capable of adding numbers and calculating the soft costs element, which requires one act of multiplication to obtain a 10% sub-amount. While a jury may be capable of adding and multiplying numbers, the fact that a “soft costs” calculation requires a 10% sub-amount is not within the common knowledge of lay person. As such, the expert’s testimony will assist the jury.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5292, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Insurance, Damages, Experts
J. Saylor denies a car manufacturer’s motion to dismiss as to three claims against it but allows the dismissal of all other claims brought against it through a class action of purchasers and lessees. The class sufficiently brings evidence of its breach of implied warranty claim and fraudulent misrepresentation claim, and it also sufficiently alleges that the manufacturer violated the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Saylor, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv10829, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Vehicle, Product Liability, Class Action
J. Pallmeyer mostly denies the sued construction materials company’s motion to dismiss an insurance company’s negligence, breach of contract and breach of implied warranties claims. The insurance company in this suit is acting as a subrogee for an agricultural products manufacturer, which bought calcium sulphate from the construction materials company and in turn sold it to a pet food manufacturer as a pet food additive. The court finds the insurance company’s negligence claim against the construction materials company is barred under Illinois’ Economic Loss Doctrine, but the remaining claims survive.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pallmeyer, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1988, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Negligence, Product Liability, Warranty
J. Thrash partially grants the manufacturer's motion to dismiss a product liability, warranty and fraud class action brought by the consumers arising from a defect in panoramic sunroofs in Mercedes-Benz vehicles which allegedly caused the sunroofs to suddenly shatter under normal driving conditions. The consumers claim that the manufacturer refused to cover repairs. Two of the consumers failed to notify the manufacturer of the defect before the action, therefore their express warranty claims are dismissed. One consumer's implied warranty claim is dismissed for failure to comply with the notice requirement. However, the class sufficiently alleged that the vehicles are unmerchantable. None of the consumers' state law claims are dismissed.
Court: USDC Northern District of Georgia, Judge: Thrash, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv671, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Product Liability, Warranty, Class Action
J. Jolivette Brown denies summary judgment to a flooring company on its argument the lessee of a gymnasium building, a popular Catholic high school, cannot recover for fire damage allegedly caused by the improper disposal of self-heating wood stain rags. The law is unclear as to whether St. Augustine, as a lessee, has a right of action to pursue a claim for property damages or loss of property value under these circumstances. Additionally, there are fact issues in dispute regarding the extent of the obligation assumed by St. Augustine by way of the lease agreement.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Jolivette Brown, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv5292, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Damages, Product Liability, Experts
J. Williams declines to bar evidence in claims contending plaintiff suffered economic injury from business interruption, demolition, and cleanup damages in a dispute over a faulty poultry cage system because repair and cleanup costs were directly related to physical damage caused by the collapse of the cage system.
Court: USDC Northern District of Iowa, Judge: Williams, Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: 5:21cv4007, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Property, Damages, Discovery
J. O'Hearn rules in part for Rust-Oleum concerning wood stain that allegedly caused a fire at a vacant home. Evidence does not indicate the insurer merely used its insured to file a complaint to seek recovery for its own benefit. However, federal regulators do not require that labels provide warnings of spontaneous combustion since such is not a principal hazard, and evidence does not indicate the stain failed to comply with federal warning regulations.
Court: USDC New Jersey, Judge: O'Hearn , Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv17397, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Product Liability
J. Trauger denies the air conditioning company's motion to compel arbitration but grants its motion for leave to amend its answer and assert a counterclaim in this negligence lawsuit stemming from the installation of an HVAC unit. The proposed amendment was not "unduly delayed," and the court does not see the possibility of prejudice. As to arbitration, there is a fact issue as to whether the customer had notice of the provision.
Court: USDC Middle District of Tennessee , Judge: Trauger, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 3:23cv642, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Arbitration, Civil Procedure, Negligence
J. Menendez grants the generator manufacturer's motion for summary judgment on the insurer's design- and manufacturing-defect claims stemming from an fire which the insurer alleged was caused by a defective generator. The insurer has not met its burden to prove the existence of an alternative, feasible, safer design for the generator, nor that the generator departed from its intended design or caused the fire.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Menendez, Filed On: December 14, 2023, Case #: 0:21cv1749, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Tort, Product Liability
J. Vratil denies a group of consumers who purchased bonded abrasive discs from an electrical tool company's motion for class certification. The electrical tool company, which may have failed to place a warning label on its products, showed in court that the consumer failed to meet class action requirements.
Court: USDC Kansas, Judge: Vratil, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv2028, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Negligence, Product Liability, Class Action
J. Dishman denies the refrigerator owners' motion to compel certain discovery in this product liability lawsuit involving a fire that was allegedly caused by the refrigerator installed on their recreational vehicle. The owners seek certain testing materials, which were produced by an outside consultant for the refrigerator manufacturer. However, it is not clear how the material is relevant to the claims at issue here, as the testing was done on other models of refrigerators.
Court: USDC Western District of Oklahoma , Judge: Dishman, Filed On: November 8, 2023, Case #: 5:20cv272, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Product Liability, Discovery
J. Hurd denies an insurer’s motion to exclude two experts’ testimony seeking to rebut claims that a manufacturer’s exhaust fan was defective and was the source of a fire that damaged an insured’s apartment building. The court finds their testimony, which suggests the fire was resulted from wood placed near a heating source, is sufficiently based on reliable principles and methods. The court further grants the insurer’s motion to preclude the experts’ cumulative testimony.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 8:22cv1356, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Insurance, Product Liability, Experts