Silvestri v. Gen. Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 27 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-2523,00-2523
• Parties: (4th Cir. 2001) MARK N. SILVESTRI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Dfendant-Appellee. Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 583

271 F.3d 583 (4th Cir. 2001)

MARK N. SILVESTRI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Dfendant-Appellee.

No. 00-2523

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

Argued: September 27, 2001

Decided: November 14, 2001

Corrected November 29, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. William M. Nickerson, District Judge.

(CA-97-4214-WMN)

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] COUNSEL ARGUED: Marc Seldin Rosen, SHAR, ROSEN & WARSHAW, L.L.C., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Harold Bruce Dorsey, PIPER, MARBURY, RUDNICK & WOLFE, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Proctor D. Robison, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellant. Jeffrey M. Yeatman, PIPER, MARBURY, RUDNICK & WOLFE, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before WIDENER, NIEMEYER, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Niemeyer wrote the opinion, in which Judge Widener joined. Judge Traxler wrote an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

Mark Silvestri filed this products liability action against General Motors Corporation, alleging that the airbag in a 1995 Chevrolet Monte Carlo he was driving did not deploy as warranted when he crashed into a utility pole and that, as a result, his injuries from the accident were enhanced. Because Silvestri failed, before the vehicle was repaired, to give General Motors notice of his claim and an opportunity to inspect the vehicle -which the district court concluded was "the sole piece of evidence in this case" -the court dismissed Silvestri's action, finding dismissal to be the appropriate sanction for the spoliation of evidence in this case. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I

On November 5, 1994, Mark Silvestri was involved in a single vehicle crash in Preble, New York. Driving his landlady's Chevrolet automobile while intoxicated and at an excessive rate of speed, Silvestri lost control of the vehicle on a curve and slid off the road. The vehicle crashed through a split-rail fence and, as it was spinning, the front of the vehicle obliquely struck a utility pole. The vehicle rotated around the pole and continued past it, coming to rest in the front yard of a residence. During the accident, the airbag in the Chevrolet did not deploy. Although it appears that Silvestri was wearing his seatbelt, he sustained severe facial lacerations and bone fractures, permanently disfiguring his face. He contends that, had the airbag deployed, he would not have sustained these disfiguring injuries.

While Silvestri was in the hospital, his parents retained attorney William G. Moench to protect Silvestri's legal interests, both with respect to Silvestri's ticket for driving while intoxicated and his potential civil action against General Motors. When Moench later contacted Silvestri, Silvestri requested that Moench continue to represent him until his period of incapacitation ended and he was able to meet with Moench in person. Later, Silvestri discharged Moench, perhaps over a dispute with Moench about the advancement of litigation costs, which then had grown to $3000, and retained present counsel.

While acting on behalf of Silvestri, Moench retained two accident reconstructionists, Erik Carlsson and Albert Godfrey, to inspect the damaged Chevrolet and to visit the crash scene so that they could render expert opinions regarding the circumstances of the crash. Carlsson later testified that it was his understanding that he was conducting his investigation "in anticipation of filing a lawsuit against General Motors." Carlsson and Godfrey inspected and photographed the vehicle and inspected the site, and each prepared a report of his findings. Because Carlsson considered it important that General Motors have an opportunity to see the car, Carlsson "suggested" to Attorney Moench, at the time he conducted his inspection, that "the car has to be kept"; and Carlsson stated, "General Motors needs to see the car." He also told Moench after the inspection that "he does indeed have a case [against General Motors] because the airbag should have deployed."

At his inspection, which took place approximately a week after the accident, Carlsson examined the vehicle and took photographs. However, he took only one measurement of the vehicle and conducted no inspection of its undercarriage. While the one measurement he took was a "crush" measurement, he made no note of the measurement. At his deposition several years later, he "seem[ed] to recall" that the "crush" measurement was 18 inches, but he could not definitely remember the measurement. Similarly, Godfrey failed to make notes of any measurements that he may have taken during his inspection. He did, however, photograph a ruler on the hood of the vehicle to measure the extent to which the front of the hood was bent off centerline. When inspecting the site of the accident, Godfrey failed to measure the skid marks left by the vehicle, confessing that he formed his initial opinion about Silvestri's speed at the time of the accident by "eyeball[ing]" the skid marks.

After their inspections, both Carlsson and Godfrey prepared written reports, dated December 6, 1994, which they submitted to Moench. In his report, Carlsson concluded that the vehicle had been subjected to two impacts at the accident, a side impact and a frontal collision. The report stated, "It is evident that the damage was caused by the vehicle striking a wooden fence. A piece of wood is stuck in the passenger side door, and another piece in the rear tire." "The frontal impact was evidently, as depicted in the police report, with the utility pole. . . . The damage indicates a collision with a narrow object, the initial point of impact being slightly to the right of the vehicle's center line." Carlsson explained further, "In spite of the substantial front end damage that affected the rails of the frame, the vehicle's airbag did not deploy at the accident. Yet, the diagnostics of the airbag showed no defect or malfunction." Carlsson concluded, "The failure by the airbag to deploy in this accident must be considered a defect that unnecessarily added to Mr. Silvestri's injuries."

In Godfrey's written report, Godfrey stated his opinion that the vehicle "struck the utility pole at an angle of approximately 25 Degrees and rotated through the window of 30 Degrees either side of the center line of the vehicle whereby the dual airbags in the vehicle should have inflated, however, failed to do so." He concluded, "A major question arises as to why the air bags did not inflate upon impact with the utility pole. Had the air bags worked properly the operator would not have struck his face on the steering wheel causing the massive facial injuries that were incurred."

Notwithstanding the anticipation of litigation against General Motors, neither Moench nor Silvestri took any steps to preserve the vehicle or to notify General Motors of the existence of the vehicle and Silvestri's potential claim. Indeed, General Motors was not notified about the accident until almost three years later when Silvestri commenced this action against the corporation. Yet, the vehicle remained in its damaged condition for more than three months after the accident. In early 1995, the title-owner of the vehicle, Carl E. Burhans, the husband of Silvestri's landlady, transferred title of the vehicle to his insurance company, and his insurance company in turn sold the vehicle to Prestige Collision, Inc., which repaired the vehicle and then sold it. General Motors ultimately found the vehicle in June 1998 in Quebec, Canada, in the possession of Real T. Durand. When, in 1998, General Motors inspected the airbag sensing and diagnostic module, which monitors and retains in its memory defects in the airbag system, it found that the module had not been damaged in the accident. The module revealed that there had been no defect in the airbag system. Silvestri's expert, however, questioned whether this was the original module that had been in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

After General Motors was named the defendant in this action, its reconstruction expert, Keith Schultz, evaluated the evidence collected by Carlsson and Godfrey, as well as the sensing and diagnostic module from the repaired vehicle. Based on the available evidence, Schultz concluded that the oblique impact of the vehicle with the utility pole did not meet the airbag deployment criteria set forth in General Motors' warranty to provide head and face protection in a frontal impact. He stated, "My investigation indicates that the impact speed and direction and conditions of the subject accident were not sufficient to cause the deployment of the SIR [Supplemental Inflatable Restraint] system and that the subject airbag properly did not deploy." He added, "It is my opinion that the injuries sustained by [Silvestri], due to the violent impact of wood from a fence impacting the vehicle compartment, could have been greater if the SIR had deployed as claimed by [Silvestri]." Schultz explained further that "the plaintiff was injured not by an impact with a telephone pole but rather when the vehicle ran through a wooden fence, violently projecting portions of the fence into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The change in velocity, or the `delta V', of the vehicle when it impacted the telephone pole was not sufficient and not directionally correct to deploy the airbags." Schultz added a serious caveat to his opinions, however, indicating that Silvestri's failure to preserve the vehicle in its condition after the accident "hinders General Motors['] ability to defend plaintiff's claim of a product defect." He explained,

Although the information stored in the SDM [Sensing and Diagnostic Module] indicates that the airbag system was operating properly at the time of the accident, a detailed inspection of the condition of the vehicle...