Fillebrown v. Steelcase, Inc.

63 F. App'x 54
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedFebruary 24, 2003
DocketNos. 02-1080, 02-1152
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 63 F. App'x 54 (Fillebrown v. Steelcase, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fillebrown v. Steelcase, Inc., 63 F. App'x 54 (3d Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

STAPLETON, Circuit Judge.

Appellant, Steelcase, Inc. (“Steelcase”), appeals a $1,338,980 judgment based on a jury verdict finding it liable for a manufacturing defect in a chair it had assembled. Appellee, W. Alan Fillebrown, has cross-appealed the judgment, claiming that the District Court erred when it reduced the jury’s finding on damages by $290,000.

I.

Fillebrown was injured when he leaned back in his chair while at work. As he leaned back, the metal spindle connecting the base of the chair and the seat broke, and Fillebrown fell to the floor. Filleb-rown brought this diversity action against the chair’s manufacturer, Steelcase, and the manufacturer of the metal spindle, Gordon Manufacturing Co. (“Gordon”). Fillebrown claimed that a manufacturing defect in the spindle caused it to fail. Fil-lebrown settled with Gordon before trial.

At trial, the parties’ experts, both qualified as experts in metallurgy and materials failure, provided competing versions of what caused the spindle to break. Filleb-rown’s expert, Dr. J. Stephen Duerr, asserted that the break in the spindle resulted from a manufacturing defect. Duerr asserted that “particularly large machining marks” made while manufacturing the spindle had caused the spindle to develop a fatigue crack and eventually break. App. 180. Steelcase’s expert countered that the spindle fracture was an overload failure resulting from prior abuse of the chair.

The jury found that the spindle broke because of a manufacturing defect and returned a verdict of $1,510,000 against Steelcase. Steelcase filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law, or in the alternative, a new trial. The District Court denied the motions for judgment as a matter of law and a new trial. The District Court, however, reduced the judgment by $290,000 to reflect pension pay-[56]*56mente to be received by Fillebrown from his former employer.

II.

Steelcase first argues that Fillebrown’s expert’s testimony concerning what caused the spindle’s failure was inadmissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), and Oddi v. Ford Motor Co., 234 F.3d 136 (3d Cir.2000). Fillebrown responds that Steelcase has waived its objections to the expert’s testimony. Fillebrown’s waiver argument fails because he did not raise the waiver issue when Steelcase filed its renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law in the District Court, and the Court decided the Daubert issue on its merits. Houghton v. American Guar. Life Ins. Co., 692 F.2d 289, 294 (3d Cir.1982) (“In the absence of exceptional circumstances, an issue not raised in the district court will not be heard on appeal.”) (internal quotations omitted); Hamilton v. Komatsu Dresser Indus., Inc., 964 F.2d 600, 603 n. 1 (7th Cir.1992) (stating that “Plaintiffs, however, have waived these waiver arguments by failing to raise them before the district court”). We will, therefore, decide Steelcase’s Daubert objection on the merits.

This Court reviews a district court’s decision to admit or exclude expert testimony for an abuse of discretion. Oddi, 234 F.3d at 146. We “will not interfere with the district court’s exercise of discretion unless there is a definite and firm conviction that the court below committed a clear error of judgment in the conclusion it reached upon a weighing of relevant factors.” Id. (internal quotations omitted).

In Daubert, the Court set out four factors with which to evaluate whether scientific evidence was admissible: (1) whether the scientific theory or technique can be tested, (2) whether it has been subject to peer review and publication, (3) the known or potential rate of error associated with the technique, and (4) whether the theory or technique has gained “general acceptance.” Daubert, 509 U.S. at 593-95, 113 S.Ct. 2786. Our court adds four other factors: (5) the existence and maintenance of standards controlling the technique’s operation, (6) the relationship of the technique to methods which have been established to be reliable, (7) the qualifications of the expert witness testifying based on the methodology, and (8) the non-judicial uses to which the method has been put. Oddi, 234 F.3d at 145.

Kumho Tire Co., Ltd. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 141, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999), holds that Daubert’s gatekeeping obligation applies not only to scientific knowledge, but also to testimony based on technical and other specialized knowledge. However, Kumho concludes that the Daubert test for reliability is flexible and that “Daubert’s list of specific factors neither necessarily nor exclusively applies to all experts or in every case.” Id. at 142, 119 S.Ct. 1167.

The District Court, in denying Steel-case’s renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, held that Dr. Duerr’s testimony was admissible. It did not abuse its discretion in so ruling.

There was no dispute that metallurgy and materials failure analysis are old, well-established sciences. Nor was it disputed that both experts were qualified by training and experience in these areas. Both implicitly acknowledged that a spindle like the fractured one would not be expected to fracture as it did in the absence of a manufacturing defect or abuse of the chair. Dr. Duerr opined that, in this instance, the culprit was a fatigue failure resulting from a machining mark and not an overload failure resulting from [57]*57abuse as Steelcase maintained. He supported this opinion with the following analysis:

(1) A fatigue failure would proceed from and follow a machining mark, as this one did, and an overload failure would be so situated only as a matter of chance, a highly unlikely alternative. There are no other likely explanations for the failure.

(2) The spindle was made of quite strong metal, and this makes it much less likely that it was affected by abuse and overload.

(3) The fact that the crack had progressed 90 percent of the way through the spindle before it broke in two pieces is indicative of a fatigue failure and not an abuse/overload situation.

(4) The chair was in good condition and showed no evidence of abuse.

(5) Hairline cracks that he observed in two of the three welds on the bottom side of the chair control were consistent with fatigue failure and inconsistent with overload. If the problem were overload, he “would expect either one of the cracks to be very large or ... all three welds to be broken.” App. 189.

“Daubert does not set up a test of which opinion has the best foundation, but rather whether any particular opinion is based on valid reasoning and reliable methodology.” Kannankeril v. Terminix Intern’l, Inc., 128 F.3d 802, 806 (3d Cir.1997). Dr. Duerr’s opinion was reasoned and the product of a reliable methodology. It was appropriate for the jury to determine which of the experts’ opinions was the most persuasive.

III.

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