Adebiyi v. Yankee Fiber Control Inc

Citation705 F.Supp.2d 287
Decision Date05 April 2010
Docket NumberNo. 05 Civ. 751 (RJS).,05 Civ. 751 (RJS).
PartiesAdeyinka ADEBIYI, Plaintiff,v.YANKEE FIBER CONTROL, INC. and Aqua-Dyne, Inc., Defendants.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. United States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. Southern District of New York

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Joshua Brian Irwin, Gregory J. Cannata, Law Office of Gregory J. Cannata, New York, NY, for Plaintiff.

Thomas Francis Cerussi, Peter Riggs, Cerussi & Spring, White Plains, NY, William R. Fried, Herrick, Feinstein LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants.

memorandum and order

RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, District Judge:

The Court presided over a jury trial in this products-liability case from October 6, 2009 to October 16, 2009. Following trial, the jury returned a verdict awarding Plaintiff Adeyinka Adebiyi nearly $4 million in damages. Now before the Court are Defendant Aqua-Dyne, Inc.'s motions (1) for judgment as a matter of law, (2) for a new trial, and (3) to set aside the damages award. 1 For the reasons stated below, the motions are granted in part and denied in part. The Court assumes the parties' familiarity with the underlying facts.

I. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law
A. Standard of Review

“If a party has been fully heard on an issue during a jury trial and the court finds that a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue, the court may ... resolve the issue against the party.” Fed R. Civ. P. 50. In determining whether there was a legally sufficient evidentiary basis for the jury's conclusion, the Court must “defer[ ] to the jury's assessment of the evidence and all reasonable inferences the jurors could draw from that evidence,” and “may not itself weigh the credibility of witnesses or consider the weight of the evidence.” Meloff v. N.Y. Life Ins. Co., 240 F.3d 138, 145 (2d Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks omitted). “A movant's burden in securing Rule 50 relief is particularly heavy after the jury has deliberated in the case and actually returned its verdict.” Cross v. N.Y. City Transit Auth., 417 F.3d 241, 248 (2d Cir.2005). “Under such circumstances, the district court may set aside the verdict only where there is such a complete absence of evidence supporting the verdict that the jury's findings could only have been the result of sheer surmise and conjecture, or there is such an overwhelming amount of evidence in favor of the movant that reasonable and fair minded men could not arrive at a verdict against him.” Id. (citations, alterations, and internal quotation marks omitted).

B. Discussion

Defendant was found liable for failure to warn under New York common law. To prevail on this claim, Plaintiff was required to demonstrate that (1) Defendant had a duty to warn, (2) Defendant breached that duty, (3) the defect was the proximate cause of Plaintiff's injury, and (4) Plaintiff suffered damages as a result of the breach. See Adeyinka v. Yankee Fiber Control, Inc., 564 F.Supp.2d 265, 280 (S.D.N.Y.2008).2

Defendant's motion for judgment as a matter of law challenges two of these elements, arguing (1) that Defendant did not breach its duty to warn, and (2) that even assuming that it had, Yankee Fiber's negligence was an intervening cause that broke the chain of causation from Defendant. The Court rejects both arguments.

1. Breach of the Duty To Warn

Defendant argues that it did not breach its duty to warn because (1) it provided extensive training to Yankee Fiber, and (2) Plaintiff failed to prove that superior warnings could have been placed directly on the mini-scrubber. Both of these arguments may be rejected.

a. Defendant's Warnings to Yankee Fiber

Defendant first contends that it did not breach its duty to warn because it provided extensive warnings to Yankee Fiber, the company that purchased the mini-scrubbers from Defendant. It is well established in New York, however, that the duty to warn “extends to warning ultimate consumers of the dangers resulting from the foreseeable use of the product.” Urena v. Biro Mfg. Co., 114 F.3d 359, 366 (2d Cir.1997) (emphasis added). Thus, to the extent Defendant is suggesting that its duty to warn extended only to Yankee Fiber, it is mistaken. Whether Yankee Fiber's negligence in failing to pass on these warnings to the New York City Housing Authority was an intervening cause relieving Defendant of liability is a separate question that the Court addresses in Section I.B.2 infra.

b. The Possibility of Superior Warnings

Defendant also contends that Plaintiff failed to prove that the warnings provided on the mini-scrubber were inadequate, insofar as (1) Plaintiff provided no expert testimony regarding the warnings, and (2) there was some testimony at trial that placing warnings directly on the mini-scrubber would have been infeasible.

In New York, “the jury does not need expert testimony to find a warning inadequate, but may use its own judgment considering all the circumstances.” Billiar v. Minn. Mining & Mfg. Co., 623 F.2d 240, 247 (2d Cir.1980). Thus, Plaintiff was not required to proffer expert testimony suggesting that the warnings placed on the mini-scrubber were inadequate (or that superior warnings could have been designed), and the jury was free to reject Dr. Conn's deposition testimony suggesting that a warning label would have been ineffective. (Liability Tr. at 296:23-297:25).3 The jury was also free to consider Plaintiff's own testimony that he would have heeded a warning, had one been present. ( Id. at 320:25-321:20.) While Defendant argues that this testimony is “self-serving,” the appropriate weighing of self-serving statements “is a matter for the finder of fact at trial.” In re Dana Corp., 574 F.3d 129, 153 (2d Cir.2009). Accordingly, the jury's conclusion that Defendant breached its duty to warn is supported by sufficient evidence to withstand the instant motion.

2. Intervening Causation

Defendant also argues that the Court should have ruled, as a matter of law, that Yankee Fiber's negligence was an intervening cause that insulates Defendant from liability. In support of this contention, Defendant relies principally upon McLaughlin v. Mine Safety Appliances Co., 11 N.Y.2d 62, 226 N.Y.S.2d 407, 181 N.E.2d 430 (1962). In McLaughlin, a young girl was rescued from drowning by a nurse and a firefighter. Id. at 65, 226 N.Y.S.2d 407, 181 N.E.2d 430. The girl was suffering from hypothermia, and so the firefighter retrieved heat blocks from his truck to treat her. Id. The firefighter had been trained by the distributor of the heat blocks, and he knew that they were not supposed to be placed directly against the girl's skin. Id. at 67, 226 N.Y.S.2d 407, 181 N.E.2d 430. Nevertheless, he activated the blocks and watched passively as the nurse applied them directly to the girl's skin. Id. The girl suffered third-degree burns. Id. at 65, 226 N.Y.S.2d 407, 181 N.E.2d 430.

The trial court instructed the jury that the distributor of the heat blocks could still be liable, notwithstanding the firefighter's negligence in allowing the nurse to apply the blocks, if it could be shown that the distributor “should have expected use of the block by some person other than those to whom instruction as to its use had been given.” Id. at 70, 226 N.Y.S.2d 407, 181 N.E.2d 430. The jury then returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The Court of Appeals reversed, writing that “the court should have charged that if the fireman did so conduct himself, without warning the nurse, his negligence was so gross as to supersede the negligence of the defendant and to insulate it from liability. This is the rule that prevails when actual knowledge of the latent danger or defect is actually possessed by the original vendee, who then deliberately passes on the product to a third person without warning.” Id. at 71, 226 N.Y.S.2d 407, 181 N.E.2d 430.

Defendant relies on McLaughlin for the broad proposition that an intermediary's failure to pass on a warning relieves the manufacturer of liability as a matter of law. This reading, however, has been soundly rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is binding authority on this Court.4 Writing twenty-five years after the McLaughlin decision, the Second Circuit wrote:

[N]otwithstanding the intervention of an act of a third person between the original negligence and the ultimate injury, the original negligent actor can be found to have proximately caused the injury if the intervening act was normal or foreseeable. When, as is usually the case, circumstances permit varying inferences as to the foreseeability of the intervening act, the proximate cause issue is a question of fact for the jury.

...

While the discussion in McLaughlin might be read to suggest that an intervening actor's gross negligence is a superseding cause that relieves the original negligent actor from liability, the more recent New York cases discussed above, holding that reckless, intentional, and even criminal intervening acts are not superseding causes when they are foreseeable, indicate that such a reading would not accurately reflect current New York law.

Woodling v. Garrett Corp., 813 F.2d 543, 555-56 (2d Cir.1987) (citations omitted).

In the instant case, the Court instructed the jury as follows:

[I]f you find that Defendant provided inadequate warnings, but that Plaintiff's injuries were also caused by the actions of others-such as Plaintiff himself, Yankee Fiber Control, or the New York City Housing Authority-and you find that the Defendant in the exercise of reasonable prudence would have foreseen the actions of those parties, then Defendant is still a proximate cause of Plaintiff's injuries.
If, on the other hand, you find that Plaintiff's injuries were caused by the actions of Plaintiff, Yankee Fiber Control, or the New York City Housing Authority, and that their actions were not foreseeable by Defendant, then Defendant's failure to provide adequate warnings was not a proximate cause of Plaintiff's injuries, and your verdict shall be for Defendant.

(Liability Tr....

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