Bullock v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

160 F. Supp. 3d 1365, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12241, 2016 WL 410007
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedFebruary 2, 2016
DocketCASE NO. 4:13-CV-37 (CDL)
StatusPublished

This text of 160 F. Supp. 3d 1365 (Bullock v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bullock v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., 160 F. Supp. 3d 1365, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12241, 2016 WL 410007 (M.D. Ga. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

CLAY D. LAND, CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT JUDGE

A jury consisting of a teacher, a businesswoman, an IT manager, a retired Army veteran, a fast food crew chief, a sales manager, a social worker, a web developer and computer technician, a retail customer service representative, a microbiology supervisor, and a home health care aide, returned a verdict awarding Plaintiff Cheryl Bullock $7,000,000 for personal injuries she suffered in a wreck that they found was caused by a design defect in a [1368]*1368Honeywell turbocharger in Mrs. Bullock’s Volkswagen Passat vehicle. This jury of six women and five men, three blacks and eight whites, also awarded Cheryl Bullock’s husband, Kevin, $1,000,000 for loss of consortium.1 Defendants ask this Court to negate the collective wisdom of these representatives of the community. Because-Defendants failed to point to any error of law and because the verdict was not against the great weight of the evidence, Defendants’ motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial (ECF Nos. 177,180,182) are denied.

After the jury returned its verdict, the Court reduced Plaintiffs’ damages based on Georgia’s comparative fault statute because the jury found that Mrs. Bullock was forty percent at fault in causing the wreck. See generally Bullock v. Volkswagen Grp. of Am., Inc., No. 4:13-CV-37 (CDL), 2015 WL 5319791 (M.D.Ga. Sept. 11, 2015) (hereinafter “Bullock II”). The Court reduced Mrs. Bullock’s damages of $7 million to $4.2 million and reduced Mr. Bullock’s damages of $1 million to $600,000. Id. at *3. Plaintiffs ask the Court to reconsider that decision and alter the judgment to award the entire amount of the jury’s verdict. As discussed below, that motion (ECF No. 179) is also denied.

DISCUSSION

I. Defendants’ Motions

A. Legal Standards

The Court may only grant Defendants’ renewed motions for judgment as a matter of law if the jury did “not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for” the Bullocks. Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a)(1). In ruling on a motion for judgment as a matter of law, the Court must “examine the evidence in a light most favorable to” the Bullocks. Cook ex rel. Estate of Tessier v. Sheriff of Monroe Cty., 402 F.3d 1092, 1114 (11th Cir.2005). The Court may grant Defendants’ motions for judgment as a matter of law only if “the facts and inferences point overwhelmingly in favor of’ Defendants, “such that reasonable people could not arrive at a contrary verdict.” Id. (quoting Mendoza v. Borden, Inc., 195 F.3d 1238, 1244 (11th Cir.1999)).

The Court may grant Defendants’ motions for a new trial if (1) the verdict was against the great weight of the evidence, Lamonica v. Safe Hurricane Shutters, Inc., 711 F.3d 1299, 1312-13 (11th Cir.2013), or (2) the Court committed “substantial errors in admission or rejection of evidence or instructions to the jury,” Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Duncan, 311 U.S. 243, 251, 61 S.Ct. 189, 85 L.Ed. 147, (1940).

B. The Trial Record

Mrs. Bullock testified that while she was driving her 2004 Volkswagen Passat in a normal manner, it accelerated unexpectedly from seventy miles per hour to ninety miles per hour, and she was unable to bring it under control by removing her foot from the accelerator while also applying the brakes. As she attempted to bring the Passat under control, she struck another vehicle that was parked in the emergency lane. Her Passat then flipped down an embankment and came to rest on its roof. Mrs. Bullock suffered serious injuries from the crash, including fractured vertebrae in her neck, a head injury, broken bones, and multiple soft tissue injuries. Her past medical expenses were stipulated to be $679,000. She also presented a life care plan and other testimony of economic damages in support of a future damages claim exceeding $1 million.

In addition to Mrs. Bullock’s testimony that her Passat accelerated unintentionally [1369]*1369and uncontrollably, Plaintiffs presented expert testimony and Honeywell’s own internal documents to prove that the vehicle accelerated uncontrollably because of a design defect in the Honeywell model GT1749V turbocharger in her Passat. Plaintiffs’ theory is that excessive oil leaked through a seal in the turbocharger into the engine and caused a surge of unintended acceleration. Although Defendants obligatorily list every theoretically possible basis for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, their primary complaint is that the Court should not have allowed testimony from Plaintiffs’ two experts (Lee Hurley and Mark Hood) and that the Court should not have admitted certain Honeywell internal documents.

1. Hurley’s Trial Testimony

Before trial, the Court denied Defendants’ Daubert motion that sought to exclude Lee Hurley’s expert testimony. Bullock v. Volkswagen Grp. of Am., Inc., 107 F.Supp.3d 1305, 1313 (M.D.Ga.2015) (hereinafter “Bullock I”). As the Court noted in that Order, expertise gained by experience can be a powerful thing.2 Id. at 1308 (distinguishing between legitimate reliance on an expert based upon his vast experience and ipse dixit (“believe it solely because I said it”), a ubiquitous phrase in modern day Daubert motions to attack the opinions of an expert). Hurley’s vast experience in automobile mechanics provides him with special expertise to testify about the issues related to the engine and turbocharger in Mrs. Bullock’s Passat. His description of that experience to the jury at trial confirmed the Court’s evaluation of his qualifications at the Daubert hearing. That experience provided Hurley with reliable principles and methods that he used to support his opinions in this case. Accordingly, to help the jury understand some of the technical issues presented, the Court permitted the jury to hear Hurley’s testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.

Hurley, who has more than forty years of experience in motor vehicle engine mechanics, owns a specialty machine shop and full service automobile business in Birmingham, Alabama. Before starting his own business in 1971, Hurley was a maintenance instructor in the United States Army, where he did mechanical work on Army helicopters. After being discharged from the Army, Hurley did mechanical work for several legendary NASCAR drivers, including Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, and Neil Bonnett. Neil Bonnett actually worked for Hurley, sweeping the garage, when Bonnett was fifteen years old. Bon-nett later became a NASCAR driver, and Hurley did mechanical work for him. Hurley was also a NASCAR driver and drove a factory race car in the mid-1960s until he was involved in a serious accident in 1969. After that accident, Hurley decided he would rather work on race cars than drive them. Trial Tr. vol. II, 236:1-237:11 (ECF No.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Richard Junior Frazier
387 F.3d 1244 (Eleventh Circuit, 2004)
Louise Cook v. Sheriff of Monroe County
402 F.3d 1092 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Duncan
311 U.S. 243 (Supreme Court, 1940)
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
509 U.S. 579 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael
526 U.S. 137 (Supreme Court, 1999)
Red Mendoza v. Borden, Inc., D.B.A. Borden's Dairy
195 F.3d 1238 (Eleventh Circuit, 1999)
Reinaldo Ramon Lamonica v. Safe Hurricane Shutters, Inc.
711 F.3d 1299 (Eleventh Circuit, 2013)
Zaldivar v. Prickett
774 S.E.2d 688 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015)
Walker v. Tensor MacHinery, Ltd.
779 S.E.2d 651 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015)
Couch v. Red Roof Inns, Inc.
729 S.E.2d 378 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2012)
Bullock v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
107 F. Supp. 3d 1305 (M.D. Georgia, 2015)
Patterson v. Long
741 S.E.2d 242 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013)
BankAtlantic v. Blythe Eastman Paine Webber, Inc.
955 F.2d 1467 (Eleventh Circuit, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
160 F. Supp. 3d 1365, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12241, 2016 WL 410007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bullock-v-volkswagen-group-of-america-inc-gamd-2016.