Dartey v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 10 July 2000
• Docket Number: No. 1:99-CV-107.,1:99-CV-107.
• Citation: 104 F.Supp.2d 1017
• Parties: John P. DARTEY and Betty Dartey, Plaintiffs, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY and Cable Manufacturing and Assembly, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

104 F.Supp.2d 1017

John P. DARTEY and Betty Dartey, Plaintiffs, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY and Cable Manufacturing and Assembly, Inc., Defendants.

No. 1:99-CV-107.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.

July 10, 2000.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Frank Gray, Beckman, Lawson, Sandler, Snyder and Federoff, Fort Wayne, IN, for Frank Gray, mediator.

Joseph Christoff, Sr., Christoff and Christoff, Fort Wayne, IN, for John P. Dartey, plaintiff.

Kevin C. Schiferl, Locke Reynolds Boyd and Weisell, Indianapolis, IN, for Ford Motor Company, defendant.

Thomas C Ewing, Hunt, Suedhoff, Kalamaros LLP, Fort Wayne, IN, for Midway Products Group Inc, defendant.

Kevin K. Fitzharris, Barrett and McNagny, Fort Wayne, IN, for Cable Manufacturing and Assembly Inc., defendant.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

WILLIAM C. LEE, Chief Judge.

This is a products liability action brought by John and Betty Dartey (collectively, "the Darteys" or "the Plaintiffs") against Ford Motor Company ("Ford")¹ alleging that the cables supporting the tailgate on their 1989 Ford F-150 Pickup truck fractured as John Dartey was standing on it, thereby causing him injury. Plaintiffs' lawsuit seeks monetary damages against Ford pursuant to Indiana's Product Liability Act, IC § 34-20, et seq., under strict liability theories of defective design, failure to warn, and breach of warranty. Betty Dartey seeks additional damages for loss of consortium.

Presently before the Court are two Motions in Limine filed by Ford on February 28, 2000, seeking to exclude the testimony of plaintiffs' proffered experts Donald Wulpi ("Wulpi") and Dr. Norman Behn ("Dr.Behn"). The Darteys responded to both motions on March 14, 2000 and Ford replied on March 28, 2000. Pursuant to Ford's request under N.D.Ind.L.R. 7.5, this Court held an evidentiary hearing on June 28, 2000 at which time all parties had an opportunity to present evidence relating to the motions in limine. Immediately prior to this hearing, the Plaintiffs filed their "Motion for Extension of Time for Disclosure of Expert Testimony" seeking an extension until July 28, 2000 to disclose additional experts. The Court took this motion under advisement in addition to the motions in limine and ordered the parties to submit additional briefing relating to the motions in limine. This briefing was completed on July 6, 2000.

For the following reasons, Ford's Motions in Limine will be GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. Plaintiffs' Motion for Extension of Time for Disclosure of Expert Testimony remains UNDER ADVISEMENT.

DISCUSSION

"Federal district courts have the power to exclude evidence in limine pursuant to their authority to manage trials." Charles v. Cotter, 867 F.Supp. 648, 655 (N.D.Ill.1994) (citing Luce v. United States, 469 U.S. 38, 41 n. 4, 105 S.Ct. 460, 463, n. 4, 83 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984)). In Hawthorne Partners v. AT & T Technologies, 831 F.Supp. 1398 (N.D.Ill.1993), the court set forth the considerations governing a motion in limine as follows:

This court has the power to exclude evidence in limine only when evidence is clearly inadmissible on all potential grounds. Unless evidence meets this high standard, evidentiary rulings should be deferred until trial so that questions of foundation, relevancy and potential prejudice may be resolved in proper context. Denial of a motion in limine does not necessarily mean that all evidence contemplated by the motion will be admitted at trial. Denial merely means that without the context of the trial, the court is unable to determine whether the evidence in question should be excluded. The court will entertain objections on individual proffers as they arise at trial, even though the proffer falls within the scope of a denied motion in limine.

Id. at 1400-01. Thus, as the term "in limine" suggests, a court's decision on such evidence is preliminary in nature and subject to change. United States v. Connelly, 874 F.2d 412, 416 (7th Cir.1989). With these principles in mind, the Court now turns to the testimony Ford seeks to exclude by way of its motion in limine.

Plaintiffs intend to call two expert witnesses, Wulpi, a metallurgical engineer, and Dr. Behn, a plastics expert, to testify at trial regarding the design of the tailgate support cables and the plastic casing used to protect those cables. At both the evidentiary hearing and in his deposition, Wulpi testified that the metal wires supporting the tailgate on the Darteys' truck fractured due to metal fatigue brought on by the long-term opening and closing of the tailgate, further aggravated by corrosion. Wulpi further opined that the metal utilized to support the tailgate was unsuitable for long-term use and thus, the Ford design which required the support cables to rest in a confined space over the long-term created a scenario where the metal wires were bound to fail. As part of his in-court testimony, Wulpi proposed an alternative tailgate design involving metal hinges which, in his opinion, is a better design than the metal cables.

Dr. Behn testified at the evidentiary hearing (and during his deposition), regarding the plastic sheathing that encases the wire. Dr. Behn testified that upon his inspection of the material encasing the wire he discovered that the casing was made of a thin, flexible nylon material, information which he confirmed using an independent laboratory. Dr. Behn further stated that his inspection of the cables on the Darteys' truck revealed that the nylon sheathing was cracked and hard along the entire expanse of the cable and, due to this condition, the nylon material permitted moisture to seep through the plastic sheathing and corrode the metal wires. Dr. Behn opined further that the nylon material was not capable of withstanding long-term use and therefore the nylon would not remain intact for the life of the truck, which he estimated to be ten (10) years. As for possible alternative designs, Dr. Behn indicated that a better plastic material called a thermoplastic elastimer ("TPE") was available around the time the Darteys purchased their vehicle and that this product was more flexible and "slightly better" than the nylon material utilized in the Darteys' truck. However, Dr. Behn ultimately concluded that neither product, in his opinion, could withstand a long-term application such as was utilized in the Ford F-150 truck.

Anticipating the above testimony to be duplicated at trial, Ford seeks to exclude the testimony contending that these experts lack experience in designing tailgates or tailgate support components, and as a result, their opinions that Ford's design was defective or that the truck should have conformed to some alternate design are mere speculation. After a review of the legal standards to be applied to the admissibility of expert testimony, the Court shall consider the parties' arguments.

The admissibility of expert testimony — whether based on "scientific," "technical," or "other specialized" knowledge—is governed by Fed.R.Evid. 702 and the principles announced in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589-592, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993). Rule 702 provides:

If scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise.

Stated simply, a threshold matter under Fed.R.Evid. 702 requires a district court to determine "(1) whether the expert would testify to valid scientific knowledge, and (2) whether that testimony would assist the trier of fact with a fact at issue." Smith v. Ford Motor Company, 215 F.3d 713, 717 (7th Cir.2000) (quoting Walker v. Soo Line R.R. Co., 208 F.3d 581, 590 (7th Cir.2000)).

The Supreme Court in Daubert and more recently in Kumho Tire Co. Ltd., v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999) provided further guidance on the court's task under Fed. R.Evid. 702, by emphasizing the district court's "gatekeeping" function to ensure that expert testimony, be it traditional scientific evidence or founded on engineering principles or other technical or specialized knowledge, is both reliable and relevant. Kumho, 526 U.S. at 141, 119 S.Ct. at 1171 and 1176. The fundamental purpose of this gatekeeping requirement "is to make certain that an expert, whether basing testimony on professional studies or personal experience, employs in the courtroom the same level of intellectual rigor that characterizes the practice of an expert in the relevant field." Kumho, 526 U.S. at 152, 119 S.Ct. at 1176. Indeed, the gatekeeping role is designed "to keep experts within their proper scope, lest apparently scientific testimony carry more weight with the jury than it deserves." DePaepe v. General Motors, 141 F.3d 715, 720 (7th Cir.1998).

The basic task of the district court with regard to analyzing reliability is to determine whether the expert is qualified in the relevant field and to examine the methodology the expert used in reaching his conclusions. Kumho Tire, 526 U.S. at 153, 119 S.Ct. at 1176-1177. In examining whether the expert is qualified in the relevant field, the court should consider a proposed expert's "full range of practical experience as well as academic or technical training." Smith, 215 F.3d 713, 717. Further, when examining the expert's methodology, the court must look only at the methodology employed by the expert. Id. In other words, "where [expert] testimony's factual basis, data, principles, methods, or their application are called sufficiently into question ... the trial judge must determine whether the testimony has `a reliable basis in the knowledge and experience of [the relevant] discipline.'" Kumho, 526 U.S. at 149, 119 S.Ct. at 1175 (brackets in original) (quoting Daubert, 509 U.S. at 592, 113 S.Ct. at 2786). The court must leave it to...