Aldridge v. Forest River, Inc.

267 F.R.D. 229, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35609, 2010 WL 1443894
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 12, 2010
DocketNo. 06 C 352
StatusPublished

This text of 267 F.R.D. 229 (Aldridge v. Forest River, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aldridge v. Forest River, Inc., 267 F.R.D. 229, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35609, 2010 WL 1443894 (N.D. Ill. 2010).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ELAINE E. BUCKLO, District Judge.

Linda Aldridge (“Aldridge”) sued defendants Specific Cruise Systems, Inc. (“SCS”) and Forest River, Inc. (“Forest River”) for injuries she allegedly suffered while descending the steps of her recreational vehicle (“RV”) on January 20, 2004. She claims that the step controller unexpectedly retracted and caused her to fall. The RV was manufactured by Forest River, and the step controller was manufactured by SCS. After a trial lasting from December 7 to December 10, 2009, a jury found in favor of both defendants. Aldridge now seeks a new trial pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil [231]*231Procedure. For the reasons explained below, the motion is denied.

Discussion

A. Forest River’s Motion in Limine 27

Federal Rule 59 provides that “[t]he court may, on motion, grant a new trial on all or some of the issues ... after a jury trial, for any reason for which a new trial has heretofore been granted in an action at law in federal court.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 59. A new trial should be granted “only when the record shows that the jury’s verdict resulted in a miscarriage of justice or where the verdict, on the record, cries out to be overturned or shocks [the] conscience.” Davis v. Wisconsin Dept. of Corrs., 445 F.3d 971, 979 (7th Cir.2006) (quotation marks omitted).

Aldridge contends that she is entitled to a new trial because of my December 4, 2009 ruling granting Forest River’s Motion in Limine 27, which sought to bar Aldridge from arguing to the jury that the RV was the product at issue in the litigation. As I explained in granting the motion, Aldridge had maintained throughout the case that the step controller in the RV was the product on which her suit was based. In opposing the motion in limine, Aldridge insisted that her intention had been to assert that the entire vehicle was defective. She makes the same claim in her Rule 59 motion, and the arguments she advances are essentially the same as those she raised previously. I remain unpersuaded.

Aldridge first argues that “[a] clear reading of Paragraph 7 of the Complaint states clearly that the 2004 recreational vehicle contained a step controller that was used to raise and lower the steps to the recreational vehicle. Clearly, allegations were made alerting Forest River, Inc. that plaintiff was complaining that her Georgetown RV was defective.” Mot. ¶ 2. The actual language of paragraph 7—which Aldridge neglects to quote—is: “the 2004 Georgetown recreational vehicle contained a step controller that was used to raise and lower steps to the recreational vehicle.” Compl. ¶ 7. Quite simply, this statement cannot plausibly be interpreted as claiming that the RV was defective; it states merely that the step controller was part of the RV.

The complaint’s other allegations make it abundantly clear that the step controller, not the RV, was the product whose defectiveness was at issue in the litigation. Thus, in Count I, which asserts a claim for strict liability against Forest River, Aldridge claims “[t]hat at the time the 2004 Georgetown recreational vehicle left the control of the defendant, FORREST [sic] RIVER, INC., the RV step controller was not reasonably safe for its intended use of raising and lowering the steps to the recreational vehicle,” Compl. (Count I) ¶ 8; “[t]hat on the 20th day of January, 2004, the plaintiff, LINDA AL-DRIDGE, was in the process of descending the steps from the aforesaid 2004 Georgetown recreational vehicle when the RV step controller unexpectedly retracted, thus causing her to fall and causing her severe and permanent injuries,” id. ¶ 9; and “[t]hat as a direct and proximate result of the defective condition of the RV step controller that was manufactured by the defendant, SPECIFIC CRUISE SYSTEMS, INC., the plaintiff, LINDA ALDRIDGE, sustained severe and permanent injuries,” id. ¶ 10. Count III, which asserts a strict liability claim against SCS, repeats virtually identical allegations. See Compl. (Count III) ¶ ll.1 In short, in her claims against both defendants, Aldridge unambiguously identifies the step controller as the proximate cause of her injuries and as the product whose defectiveness is at issue in the litigation.

Aldridge also cites language from the report of Richard W. Kragh (“Kragh”), Forest River’s expert, in support of her claim that the suit was based on the RV instead of (or in addition to) the step controller. In particular, she points to Kragh’s statement “that the step system, including but not limited to the SCS Step Controller, on the 2004 Forest River Georgetown motor home having VIN 1FCNF53S530A05374 was not unreasonably dangerous and defective as used and did not [232]*232fail in a manner causative of the accident on January 20, 2004.” Pl.’s Ex. 1. According to Aldridge, this shows that “plaintiffs own expert was not limiting his opinion to the step controller only, but was saying that the step system itself was not failing, which is all plaintiff was required to do in this case, as Florida law does not require plaintiff to prove a specific defect if the product malfunctions during ordinary use and operation.” Motion at ¶ 3. Aldridge freights Kragh’s comment with far too much importance. The reference to the RV here is incidental and simply does not support the claim that it was the RV’s defectiveness that formed the basis for Aldridge’s complaint. Indeed, as Forest River points out, in the introduction to his report, Kragh explains that his assignment was “to evaluate the operation of the SCS Step Controller installed on a Forest River Georgetown motor home and to determine its involvement, if any, in the subject accident.” Forest River Resp. Ex. 3 (Doc. 276-3). To the extent that Kragh incidentally opined on matters beyond the step controller, that would not establish Aldridge’s claim that the RV was the product at issue in the litigation.

Next, Aldridge argues that as a matter of Florida law, she should not have been limited to arguing that the step controller was defective. In particular, she relies upon Cassisi v. Maytag Co., 396 So.2d 1140, 1148 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1981), which held that “if a product malfunctions during normal operation, a legal inference arises that the product was defective and the injured plaintiff thereby establishes a prima facie case for jury consideration.”2 Caswell v. Ford Motor Co., No. 803CV2182T30MSS, 2005 WL 3372882, at *3 (M.D.Fla. Dec.12, 2005). According to Aldridge, she was not required under Cassisi to prove whether it was the step controller or the RV that caused her injury, and that, consequently, she should have been permitted to argue that the RV was the problem.

This argument rests on a misunderstanding of Cassisi. In particular, Aldridge conflates (1) the question of which product is alleged to be defective in the litigation with (2) the question of how the defectiveness of that product is to be established. Cassisi speaks to the second of these questions, not the first. Before Cassisi comes into play, it is first necessary to identify the product at issue in the litigation. Once that determination has been made, Cassisi

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Bluebook (online)
267 F.R.D. 229, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35609, 2010 WL 1443894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aldridge-v-forest-river-inc-ilnd-2010.